Vnity To these I might add Envy the Canker of the Mind the daughter of Discontent and constant Enemy of Peace Covetousness the Root of all Evil. Envy being the shadow of Honour and real Worth and Sacrilegious Covetousness the Ravenous Harpie that preys upon the small Patrimony of the Church which usually is the great perswasive to prophane and Rapacious Natures to treat her as the Atheistical Dionysius did his Apollo who rob'd him of his golden Robe alledging it was too cold for his Godship in Winter and too heavy in Summer but because these Fall in with Interest and Ambition I will not under different Names repeat the same things over again to nauseat the Judicious and tire the indifferent Reader with reiterated Tautologies CHAP. V. HAVING thus shewn what it is that impedes our Happiness and which therefore must of necessity be removed from the Minds of Men before there can be any Possibility of their Embracing Truth Unity and Charity in the next place we come to manifest the necessity of Vnion the only Expedient which can procure the Common Happiness of Mankind Now to make this appear we must look into the Main End and Design of all Religion here in this Mortal State of Life in order to that future Condition of a Glorious Immortality and that we may the better apprehend what that is we must consider the Commands and Precepts of Religion and at what they aim And because all the Rules of our Holy Profession direct us to it we must believe that God Almighty gave us those Precepts Rules and Directions to promote our own and the Common Happiness of all Mankind even here in this present State of Life to render our short Journey through the troublesom Stage of Time more pleasant and easy till we arrive at the unchangeable Happiness of Eternity This Easiness of Mind this real Happiness of Life is only to be obtain'd by following the precepts of Justice Temperance Sobriety Prudence and the other Noble and God-like Vertues which Religion teaches for the substance of Happiness does not consist in any thing without us though there are good Circumstances but in the Innocency of Mind and purity of Life Nil Conscire sibi nullà pallefcere culpâ in our being good and doing good which is the great Employment for which we came into the World So that there is a necessity of Religion in the World in order to the happy posture of humane affairs which all Mankind desire for themselves with unlimited wishes but are too narrow in their indeavors to promote it in Common unto others That this was the Wise and good Design of the great Creator is most apparent in that even in those obscure Ages of Barbarism and Ignorance Act. 14.16 17. at which the Apostles says God was pleased to wink yet he left not himself without a Witness When in times past he suffered all men to walk in their own ways they were not without some Religion which taught them their Duty in some Measure though imperfect both to the Gods for they supposed many and also to Men. THAT must of Necessity therefore be the truest Religion and most agreeable to the Will of God which approaches nearest to this Great Design and would certainly accomplish the End for which all Religion was intended And therefore the truth of any Religion must be measured according to the Proportion which it holds to promoting Peace Unity and Charity the only ways to obtain happiness in this World as well as Faith whereby we hope to obtain the happiness of a future state And what Religion soever separates these Good Works from Faith is so far vain and destroys that Faith it seems to profess for Faith without Works is dead If therefore any Religion ruines Peace Unity and Charity we must judg it so far false and erroneous let it make never so many Boasts of holding the true Faith of Christ Of all the Religions which ever were in the World the Christian Doctrine may justly challenge the Preheminence as conducting men if they would be managed by it the nearest way to Happiness both Temporal and Eternal and among all the variety of Opinions in the Christian Religion that must therefore of necessity be the best and truest which does most powerfully promote innocency of Life purity of Mind Unity and universal Peace not by external force and violence but by the same Methods which God Almighty made use of to plant and propagate it in the World which was not by Tumults Seditions or Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate but by meekness humility Charity and a Conversation unblameable Which were the Weapons by which the Primitive Christians were taught to put to silence the ignorance of folish Men The Church indeed had a power but it was purely Spiritual and those spiritual Arms were the most powerful to the pulling down and dismantling the strong holds of Sin and therefore even while the Temporal Powers of the Earth did all they could to suppress them yet mightily did the Word of God grow and increase not by opposing Rebelling or imposing Laws upon their Soveraigns but by submitting and suffering demonstrating upon all occasions their Innocence and that they were free from any ill designs upon the Civil Government of the World or the Temporal concerns of Mankind BUT because all and every Profession of Christian Religion every Church would have us beleive this of them and that therefore every one Challenges the name of the true Church of Christ here lies the Difficulty and the niceness of the Point Which is the best and truest And because all desire the Glorious Title therefore they quarrel about it who it is that is the Spouse of Christ Whereas one would Modestly believe that to be without Spot and Wrinkle is not to be appropriated to any particular Church in which there must be Tares and Chaff as well as Wheat but to the Holy Catholick Church I do not mean of Rome for She is but one Member that glorious Company of true Believers the General Assembly of the Church which have been and shall be in all Ages of the World and out of all Nations united unto Christ their Head A Church may be a true and a visible Church of Christ and yet have many Errors and so long as they keep the foundation of Faith though they may build Hay and Stubble upon that Foundation yet I do not see how they can be denyed that Name Thus we see St. Paul writes to the Church of God which is at Corinth 1 Cor. 1.2 to them that are Sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints And yet in that very Epistle he Complains of great Errors and Disorders among them Cap. 11. and an Abuse of the very Sacrament of the Lords Supper and so to the Church of the Galatians and yet he tartly calls them foolish Galatians and tells them they were bewitched into this Disobedience against the Truth and that he was
Expiating Guilt and Purchasing Heaven after all the Enjoyments of a sensual lascivious and debauched Life by Confession here and Masses bought to be said hereafter and at the worst the pains of Purgatory all which Doctrins bring in Treasure and Authority to the Priests and Church which generally shares with them in the purchase and permits them not to have lawful Heirs that so she may be their Executrix these and a multitude of the same Nature which are made matters of Faith and Sacraments in their Church essential to Salvation Fasten on the Manacles and make their Proselytes voluntarily entertain a slavery so agreable to their Wishes and Desires For who would not like a Religion which permits him to Enjoy all the Liberties of the World and the Flesh though renounced by his Baptismal Vow and yet puts him out of the danger of Hell and Damnation that allows him to serve his Mammon of Unrighteousness and yet expect a Reward from God whom he may at the same time serve though Christ says Nay to it and please with a few random Prayers repeated only with the labour of the Lips which at one Heaven according to their Quantity and are Efficacious by their Multiplicity who would not be a Papist who can believe that though he live all the Year like a Heathen in Sensuality and open Impiety yet if at Easter he make Confession to a Priest he shall thereby clear the score betwixt God and his Soul and be a good Catholique though he is no sooner parted from his Ghostly Father but he repeats the same Crimes or it may be worse and returns to the former Vomit and wallowing in the Mire perfectly upon the incouragement of the same Remedy who would not be such a Catholique when a few knocks upon his Breast shall be Contrition and some austerities and hardships practised upon the Body shall satisfie for the sin of his Soul and the most flagitious Offenders may hope for and be certain of Reconciliation to God and yet never be sensible of the severe Agonies of Spirit and the insupportable Wounds of Conscience the dreadful Horrors of a guilty Mind Is not this a soft and easie way to Heaven which makes the Way so broad and the Gate so wide which is set open by St. Peter's Keys that it is impossible any man should either Miss the one or not Enter the other who is not either so miserably Poor or so wretchedly Covetous or so great an Vnthrift or so destitute of Charitable Friends as not to be able to leave a small sum of Money for Masses and Dirges to reskue him from the Pains of Purgatory O dangerous Simony which sells Heaven and the Holy Ghost without which the other cannot be had for Money And if the Pope has such a Power to relieve the Quick and the Dead he is the most Uncharitable person to say no worse in the World who when for a word of his Mouth he can Save so many Souls from the Horrid Pains of Purgatory will not do it unless he be hired to it the Good Shepherd lays down his Life for the Flock but the Hireling will not spare his Breath to Cool the Flaming Tongues of those who suffer such Intollerable Pains unless he be paid for his AND if at any time the more Learned or Intelligent come to discover the pious Frauds the Great Severities which are made use of against them if they do but mutter against the Church the Fear of loosing their Lives or Estates and wearing the Infamous Brand of Hereticks is the Interest which seals their Lips in silence AND for the Clergy the High Honors to which they may arive and the dazeling Lustre of the Tripple Diadem shines so full upon their Eyes that it takes away their sight and the innumerable ways of obtaining Dignities Riches Esteem and Veneration with the Laity generally prove too strong Charms to be resisted by feeble Nature For who would turn a poor Protestant Priest when thereby he shall be so great a looser when thereby he shall part with all the fair Revenue of Masses for the Dead Money for Pardons Indulgences Licences Dispensations and the more than Almighty Priviledge and Miracle of making his Creator and transubstantiating a poor piece of Bread into the real body of the Son of God when he must renounce all hopes and pretensions to the Red Cap the Title of Eminency and the Princely state of S. E. R. Cardinal the next step to Vice Deus and the Supreme Honor of the Triple Miter and when in Exchange he must confine his Ambition to it may be a small Benefice and a great Charge in his vigilant Cure of Souls a heavy Burthen and it may be a light Gain and which if he does indeavour faithfully to discharge shall procure him in the room of Love Honour and Esteem Hatred Scorn Contempt and Reproaches And when the highest that can be hoped is but a Pastoral Staff and humble Mitre the Load and Envy of Government the Constant Care of the Churches and a certain Revenue of Malice for the little Temporal Honour and Estate which it may be is but just sufficient to maintain Charity and Hospitality those Honourable Characters as well as Expensive Duties of a Primitive Bishop I could heartily wish that even this Interest and the Revenue of the Church could not be objected against any Dissenters as a former Motive that induced them to Ruine her that so they might Rob her and that the same Spur did not still continue their Career in the same Design I know they will disown it and I wish we could believe them and our senses at the same time I wish the advantages they make of Tones Phrases long Prayers sanctified Looks and Religious Disobedience with which they please the Factious shelter the Seditious and agrandize themselves both in Riches and Reputation might not be objected against Dissenters as a greater Reason for their Nonconformity than any real Power of Conscience And they give a just occasion to suspect that they have not a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man who dare daily break the Laws of the one and the other and make no scruple to wound the Consciences of others both weak and strong under pretence of keeping their own from being wounded which is just so charitable as for me to wound another man and say it was in my own defence and lest he should have injur'd me So that it appears how great an influence Interest has upon the minds of Men to obstruct the Entertainment of Truth and that therefore in Order to obtain Peace and Vnity there is an absolute necessity that Men should lay aside the Clog of self Interest CHAP. III. IT is not Interest alone that obstructs the happy Vnion that ought to be amongst Christians and occasions those Divisions amongst them but there is also a necessity that Men should devest themselves of their prejudices and prepossessions of mind for these do always
of several distinct Churches who are all Members of that Mystical Body he walks among the Candlesticks he holds the Stars in his right hand The Angel of every distinct National Church is to be the mover of the Orb to guide it by the Light of Divine Truth spoken by the Spirit of the Churches the Temporal Power may be Supreme Head of the Church as they are a Society of Christian Men but neither the one nor the other can justly pretend a Power over the Angel of another Church or the Dominions of another Prince for that is the Prerogative of the Son of God who Unites them in his Right hand and who alone can challenge the Title of that Name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords NOR will this Independency of Churches one upon another which is only in point of Jurisdiction and Limits which was anciently practiced and commanded by the Decrees of Councels give the least disturbance to their Charity and Vnion so long as they maintain the same Universal Doctrine of Faith as to the substance and all acknowledge one Catholique Church and themselves Members of it Nay it is observable that this incroachment of the greater Churches upon the less and indeavouring to aggrandize themselves by imposing upon all other Churches a Soveraignty and Dominion never intended for Christian Religion and striving by force to oblige them to use their Rites and Ceremonies in indifferent Circumstantials and not only so but to receive all their Opinions as matters of Faith were the first occasion of the most remarkable Schisms and Divisions and the loss of Peace and Unity and still continue so to this very day Whereas did they all resolve to content themselves with their own Precincts and not indeavour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and act out of their own Provinces but would permit others to make use of such indifferent Rites as the Governours of the several Churches judge necessary and expedient in their respective Charges and if any Controversies should arise in Point of Doctrine resolve amicably to compose them by hearing what the Spirit saith to the Churches and how the Universal Church has already determined in the same or like Affairs according to the Rule of Scripture would they study more to propagate Peace and Vnity than Dominion and Soveraignty to increase Piety and Purity of Life more than outward agreement of Rites and Ceremonies the ancient Happiness of the Church in her first and Vnambitious Age when the Office of Government was the surest way to Martyrdom would in a great measure be restored to the Members of the Catholique Church and there would be that Vnity which is by God Commanded and by all good Christians not only to be desired but promoted to the uttermost of their Power Were it possible that this true and ancient Temper Modesty and Moderation of Primitive Christianity might obtain in the World the Names of distinction with the occasions of them would be taken away one would not be of Paul another of Apollos another of Cephas one a Romanist another a Calvinist Lutheran Hugonot or a Zuinglian but all would be of Christ but alas what hope so long as the Church of Rome will be Vniversal and will exclude all those who Refuse the tyranique Yoak of both her Declared and Implicit Faith and to be subject to her absolute Dominion not only from the Name of Churches and being Parts of the Church Universal but from the Communion of Saints from all hopes of the Resurrection of the just nay even from her Purgatory too which is very severe if there be such a place as admits of Hope for Sinners after Death and in a word from all possibility of the Life everlasting How disterent is this from the ancient Charity and Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul whom they believe the Founders of their Church for they incourage us to hope we may receive the Benefit of the Common Salvation Act. 10.35 for God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him for with him there are no Distinctions neither Greek nor Jew Col. 3.11 to v. 16. Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but all are Christs who have put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of Mercy kindness humbleness of Mind meekness long-suffering forbearance one of another and forgiveness one towards another if there be differences as Christ also forgave us and above all things they who have put on Charity which is the bond of Perfection and whose Hearts are ruled by the Peace of God But in regard that this is to be dispair'd of and may well seem forreign to the Design of these Papers let us come to consider what Influence this ought to have upon us as to Vnity amongst our selves which without Excluding our Neighbours from our Charity though they do us from theirs and Heaven is the principal Intention of this Discourse CHAP. VI. HAVING shewn that the Peace and Vnity of the Catholick Church Militant upon Earth depends in a great Measure upon this Justice in preserving the Common Faith of Christ as the bond of Vnion not only among our selves but with that part of the Church which is now Triumphant in Heaven and in order thereunto in allowing every distinct and National Church their particular Bounds and Jurisdiction free from Incroachments and Invasion permitting them a freedom of Using such Rites and Customs in the Celebration of Divine Worship as the Governors of each respective Church shall judge to be nearest the Rule of Scripture the Constant Usage and Determination of the Catholique Church in the best Ages and of the best Men in all most conducive to the Great End of all Religion by promoting the Happiness of Mankind both here and hereafter before we proceed any further it will be requisite to answer what may and will be certainly objected by all Dissenters FOR if an Independency of Churches of Distinct Nations and Polities so long as they agree in matters of Faith may be permitted a distinct Jurisdiction different Rites and manner of Worship to the increase of Charity Peace and Unity why may not the same be likewise practised by several Churches in the same Nation To which I answer That as Vnity in point of Faith is the Bond of Vnion in the Vniversal Church so Obedience to the Supreme Government of any Nation is that which Vnites them into one Polity and distinguishes them from all other People who do not own that Subjection and Obedience And this Vnion of Obedience is also that which preserves and maintains them as well as Constitutes them a distinct Political Body from all other Nations Herein lies their Strength herein their Security their Safety and Happiness For as I may be Lawfully permitted to disobey the King of Spain or France nay and ought to do it in many Cases for the Interest of my Nation but cannot disobey my
Natural Prince but to the prejudice of my Countrey and my own because I owe them no Obedience in point of Jurisdiction as I do my own King So I may for the same Reason refuse the Jurisdiction of a Forrein Church but cannot of my own which has a lawful Power over me and to which I owe Obedience because I am a Member of her Polity For every person and all Persons who live in the World must own a Subjection to the Government where they live and because that affords them Protection therefore they are to pay their Obedience both as a Duty of Gratitude the Foundation of Society and the Interest they have to maintain that Government and Power which does protect secure and defend their Lives Liberties and Estates and in effect all the Happiness of Humane Life Now since the Light of Nature Reason and Interest does oblige all men to own this as a necessary Truth and those who have opposed it have ever been esteemed the common Enemies of all Mankind Traitors not only to the Government they have opposed but to the Foundation and Principles of all Society and to the happiness of Mankind in general Therefore it is absolutely necessary in any distinct Society of Men that the Circumstances of Religion for the Substance of Faith is not in the power of any Mortal man to Alter or Establish should be adapted to the attainment of this Common Design of all Government both Civil and Religious the Happiness of the Society But this is impossible to be effected where there are many distinct Churches in the same Society For either the Supreme Authority has Power over them all or over none at all if none at all the Society is ruin'd and he is no longer King nor they own themselves his Subjects who deny his Authority and that they owe him obedience if he has Power over them it must be in Circumstantials of Government Order and the manner of Divine Worship Now either he can command them to perform these all one way and then they are no longer distinct Churches but the same or he cannot lawfully command them nor are they bound to Obey and so he is no longer their King nor they his Subjects then he obliges them by parting with his Soveraignty and they please upon that Condition that he permits them to do what they please to afford him their Subjection So that in effect distinct Churches and Independent upon the Soveraign in the same Nation which is one intire Body Politick are so many Spiritual Electors of Germany who own an Emperor in Name but are absolute in Reality and Soveraigns within their own Territories and Dominions BESIDES there is so near a Connection between all Temporal and Religious Laws the Laws of Men having their Foundation and Stability from the Original Laws of God and being only Lawful so far as they are agreeable to them that it is impossible for the most Nice Curiosity to distinguish the Limits of these two Powers the Temporal and the Spiritual Now if we suppose several distinct Independent Churches in one Nation we must suppose them to have distinct Forms of Government and it will be impossible for the Prince to make any Temporal Law which some of them may not pretend is against their Jurisdiction Let it be to raise Men or Money for the common Defence of all by War it may be an easy Scruple whether the War be Lawful whether that be his Intention whether it be for the Common Benefit and according as these distinct Churches judg it Lawful or Religious Safe or Dangerous so shall he receive their assistance So far and no farther goes their Obedience A too visible Effect of which it is to be seared we have at present when these Churches and their Jurisdiction is not by Law permitted and what might we expect if this Power which they challenge were either Tolerated or by Law Established So that if Obedience be a necessary Duty both Civil and Religious in order to the Happiness of any Society or Nation one Church owning that Subjection and Obedience in point of Government not of Faith is necessarily to be Established in that Society and Nation But I shall discourse more fully upon this Particular hereafter and therefore refer the Reader thither only I desire it may be taken notice of that the Design and Quarrel of all Dissenting Parties however they may pretend only purely Spirituals Conscience and Religion yet ends in the pretence to Soveraignty and Dominion and though it talks only of the Altar yet is level'd at the Throne and that therefore the Church of England which makes not the least pretentions to the prejudice of the Princes Right but by her Doctrine and her Practices teaches Humility Obedience and Submission to the Prince renders her true Sons the best of Subjects as well as the best of Christians and that nothing but Vnity in Government can teach men rightly to Honour the King as Vnity in Faith teaches them truly to fear God and be true Members of the Holy Catholique Church BUT secondly It will be Objected That by this Position of the Necessity of Vnity in Government and Uniformity of Worship in Rites and Ceremonies in a National Church Men will be obliged to submit to those things which are against their Consciences FOR answer to this at large I refer them to a small Treatise Intitled The true Liberty and Dominion of Conscience where they may see how they impose upon themselves and others by obtruding upon them Private Opinion or perswasion for Conscience for unless they be certain by Divine Revelation of clear Scripture or consequence of Scripture which will not admit of a Doubt that the things imposed are Unlawful Conscience is not concerned in them and it is only their Opinion which ought to submit to Publique Peace and Government which are clear and evident Commands of God If the things commanded are Unlawful shew us the Prohibition If they be not Unlawful they may be imposed for any man may by Authority be lawfully commanded to do what is Lawful for the obtaining Peace and Happiness to himself and all others of the same Society Nay he is bound in Conscience to do it BUT for a further satisfaction and a short Answer I desire it may be considered that every submission to the Judgment and practice of another who is of a different Opinion is not an Error if the thing be indifferent about which we disagree and that I may without offending my Conscience do what I am commanded though in my private Judgment I do not approve of it if by doing of it I promote Peace and shew my Obedience For where the Question is whether by not doing this I shall obey my own Judgment which doubts whether I may do it Lawfully or disobey that Power which commands me to do it which I cannot deny but has a Lawful power to command me The Resolution is easy for I am not by my
Laws of God and Man just as they suit his Interest and his Inclination to make the Scriptures a Nose of Wax and the King and Church meer Heads of Wood and since the reason of Obedience is because we think it truth which is Commanded and that they who Command are better able to Judge for us than we our selves as being by God appointed over us for that Design should they be mistaken in what they Command yet the Judge of all the Earth who cannot do wrong would be so far from punishing that he would reward such Obedience because done according to his Command Nor shall the other for Commanding because they did it with a good Design provided when it does appear to them to be of ill consequence they cease to impose it any longer which is the true reason why many things in the service of God have been altered and abolished upon several Occasions THIRDLY It will be objected That by this Rule all the Gallicane German and other Protestant Churches who live under a Government which owns and Commands the Romish Discipline and Church will hereby be made Schismaticks to those several National Churches of which they are Members and that hereby a necessity is laid upon us to return to the Obedience of the Church of Rome for if those Churches may dissent from their National Churches and yet hold the true Faith why may not we why should their Disobedience be Lawful and ours Damnable To this I answer First That the Difference between those Churches and the National Church in which they are does not consist in Matters of Circumstance or Ceremony but in Matters of Faith and though I will neither undertake the Defence of those Churches either in Doctrine or Discipline yet I suppose they separate from the Roman Communion upon the account of the Impositions of that Church in Points of Faith such as are the Popes Supremacy never owned in France even by the Catholiques the Doctrines of Infallibility the real Presence by Transubstantiation Merit of Works and Supererogation Invocation of Saints Purgatory Adoration of Images c. and the Roman Church who imposes these as Articles of Faith is her self Schismatical if not Heretical from the Catholique Apolique Church of all Ages and therefore to depart from her where she departs from Truth is no more Heresie or Schism than it would be to depart from the Law of Moses or the Jewish Communion in Circumcision c. or of Mahomet if those were imposed as Matters of Faith by that or any other Church for the Apostles Rule holds good to the End of the World for all Christians in Matters of Faith and Manners Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 And would the Romish Church Impose no more upon Christians as necessary to Salvation than is contained in those three famous Creeds of the Apostles Nice and St. Athanasius and what is clearly contained in Scripture which have ever been the Standards of the Catholique Faith I think every good Christian over whom they may challenge a Lawful Jurisdiction ought to joyn with them in Communion of Government and even those over whom they can rightly challenge none ought yet to agree with them in the Communion of Faith Nay should they command many Ceremonies in the Service of God more than they do yet those who live in the Jurisdiction of that Church ought to submit to them for the maintaining of Unity Peace and Charity and I doubt not but the Foreign Protestants at least in Charity I hope so if there were no other matters of Difference between them would easily be perswaded to submit to all the Points of Government Ceremony and much more I remember what a Famous French Minister said to this Purpose when he was told that some of the English Nonconformists refused Communion with the Church of England because they were Enjoyned to wear the Surplice and other Vestments I wish says he that the King of France would command me to perform my Function in a Fools Coat so little did he think the outside and dress of Religion to be of the Essence of it and so necessary did he judge Obedience as well as true Faith to the Peace Unity and Happiness of the Church BUT Secondly Many of those Protestants have Licence and Tolleration given them to Celebrate the Worship and Service of God according to their own Way and by that Dispensation they are free from the guilt of Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate and for the Obedience they owe to the Church of Rome I presume they are willing to give it with all their hearts if Rome Exacted no more in matters of Faith than God Almighty requires as necessary to Salvation BUT the Case is clearly different betwixt our Dissenters and the Foreign Protestants for our Differences are or at least are pretended to be about matters of Polity and the Manner of performance of the Offices of Religion and let the Nonconformists prove us but Guilty of destroying one Article of Faith or imposing any thing to be believed or done contrary to the Scriptures and let them dissent from us in Gods Name and till they can do that their Separation will be a horrid Schism and their Nonconformity a manifest Disobedience to the Laws of God and Men. And should the Foreign Churches refuse the Communion of the Church of Rome and disobey the Princes whose Subjects they are commanding them if there were no greater Differences than Matters of Ceremony and Circumstance I doubt not but their Separation and Disobedience would deserve the same Character BUT supposing the Supreme Power of those Countries should absolutely prohibit the Protestants the exercise of their Religion I think they ought to obey and fall to the Old Arms of the Primitive Christians Prayers and Tears and not to the new Methods of Manaces making Parties and endeavouring by force of Arms to obtain that from Authority by Violence and Compulsion which they cannot by Perswasion A Practice shameful to the Protestant Cause and for any thing I can see if they Judg of all by the Example of our Dissenters more likely to perswade all Princes to Extirpate them out of their Dominions for Seditious Schismaticks and Dangerous Rebells than to Tollerate them as Innocent and Religious Christians THIS was the Custom of the Ancient Christians who Conquered more by the Cross than the Persecutors by all their Cruelty who overcame by Suffering and not by Rebelling A remarkable Instance of which we have in the Army of Julian the Apostate who were obedient to him as their Temporal Soveraign so long as he liv'd but after he had jested out his impious Soul with a Vicistî Galilaee and that Jovinianus was chosen Emperor which he refused as being a Christian and thinking the whole Army Pagans they all cried out Et nos sumus Christiani We are all of us also Christians Here were men in Arms a Powerful Number of Veterane and Victorious Legions
and yet had they not so much as a Rebellious thought of Establishing Religion by force or violence CHAP. VII BY what has been said it appears that the Foundation of all Charity among Christians is built upon Vnity in Faith which is the necessary bond of the Catholique Church which is the Company of all faithful People which are have been or shall be in all Ages and Places of the World and that Vnity in Government as well as Faith is the Bond of Peace and Obedience a Duty therefore which all men owe to their Lawful Superiors as the Necessary Ligature of a National Church which being a Political Society of Religious Men does therefore require a Political Government in Religious as well as Civil affairs THE not well considering of this Difference between a National and the Catholique Church seems to be the chief Ground of the Quarrels among Christians for the Catholique Church being the Spiritual Body of Christ is United in it self and to him by the Spiritual Bond of the Catholique Faith which Faith may be kept Whole and Undefiled though there be great Differences in External Rites and Ceremonies For all Ceremonies are not fit for all Places as for Example Submerging of the person Baptized may do very well in the warm Climates but would be very hazardous in the more Northern Regions of Muscovy Rushia c. Thus we see it was adjudged in that Great Controversie about the Celebration of Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches For when Anicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna differ'd in their Opinion about it they came to this amicable Determination that each Church should celebrate it according to their own Custom for which they gave this Reason Quia non oportet propter Caeremoniarum dissonantiam rumpere Fidei Consonantiam Ecclesiae Concordiam The Peace and Concord of the Church in the Harmony of Faith ought not to be broken for a disagreement in matters of Ceremony And because this Difference made a great Noise in the Church for many years â—â—d in regard it Confirms my Position of Vnity of Faith being the Bond of the Catholick Church and Vnity of Government as well as Faith that of a National Church I will relate the History of it in short as it is Recorded by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History Euseb lib. 5. c. 24 25 26. Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus and a great many of the Asian Bishops alledging the Practice and ancient Custom of St. John the beloved Disciple of our Lord who was himself Bishop of Ephesus Polycarp and several others observed Easter upon any day of the Week according to the Custom of the Jews The Christians of the Western Church observed it as we do upon the Sunday being the day of his Resurrection Upon this Victor Bishop of Rome pronounces them Excommunicate and separates from their Communion Irenoeus Bishop in Lions shews Victor his Error and that for Ceremonies and Circumstances the Vnity of the Church ought not to be broken which he manifests by the Diversity of several Churches in observing the time of Fasting before Easter some only one day some two some more to forty and yet for all this says that Excellent Father they were at Vnity one with another and as yet retain it for this Variety of Fasting commendeth the Vnity of Faith and thereupon writing to Victor he acquaints him that Anicetus Pius Hyginus Telesephorus and Xystus his Predecessors though not observing the same Custom with the Bishops of Asia yet nevertheless were at Vnity with them and sent the Eucharist unto the Brethren of other Churches that observed a Contrary Custom shewing him also how Polycarpus did not endeavour to alter the Judgment of Anicetus but told him that he ought to observe the ancient Custom of his Predecessors Upon which for the reason before-mentioned they friendly received the Holy Eucharist together the Symbol of their Vnity in Faith and parted from each other in Peace and all such adds he as held contrary Customs and Observations throughout the Vniversal Church held fast the Bond of Love and Vnity no Church endeavouring to impose upon the Liberty of others in point of Circumstances so long as they all held the Catholique Faith as the only necessary bond of Vnion in the Catholique Church and Vnity of Government as the Bond of Vnion in the several Distinct and National Churches whereof the Universal is composed and which therefore it appears had Originally a Jurisdiction among themselves over which neither Rome nor any other had a Power So that is clear that several National Churches may lawfully differ in External Rites of Government from the Catholique without the danger of Schism But now in a National Church there is a necessity of Vnity and Obedience to the Determinations of those who are the Lawful Governors of it and all Disobedience there is a Schism in regard the Peace of that Church the Order and Charity of it without this must be destroyed and therefore there is a Necessity of this Vnity in point of Government in any National Church Now every Distinct Nation as before was said being a separate Society of men Distinguished from the rest of the World by a different Government and their Obedience to it as well as by their Place of Habitation there is a Necessity that Religion should conduce all it can to the preservation of that Political Frame upon which the Well-being and Happiness of the Society depends For the Civil and Religious concerns are so mutually interwoven that no man can be a Good Citizen who is an ill Christian or an ill Christian who is Bonus Civis a good Publiquewealths-man and these do mutually support one another true Religion Improving this Interest of all Men by making the Civil part of the Polity a Duty of Religion among Christians whereas among Heathen it was only a duty of Interest and Policy For even in this sense we may truly say as our Saviour of himself Matt. 5.17 that Christian Religion came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it to conform Humane Laws to the Rule of Divine Equity Truth and Justice and for this reason our Lord himself gave that Universal Precept to Render to Caesar his Due which also he confirmed by his Practice paying him Tribute even with a Miracle NOR do we ever find the Primitive Spirit of Christianity opposing any humane Laws or Power unless they were such as directly struck at the Root of Faith and a holy Life such as were the severe Edicts of the Persecuting Emperors to compel them to renounce and Blaspheme Christ to adore the Pagan Gods or to offer Incense to the Statues of the Emperors Nay when they were treated with more than inhumanity they never had recourse to Violence or attempted to justle the Temporal Power out of the Throne or force it to a compliance with their Wills but suffered patiently even when as Tertullian Apologizes for them they were
attain Salvation as Disobedience to the Government of the Church your Mother Who lose all Charity the substance of Religion for the Watry shadow that appears in the smooth but treacherous face of the specious words of Reformation and greater degrees of Purity not considering in the mean time that these are all the best of them but outward Forms of Godliness common to the Good and Bad but that Charity and Obedience in order to Brotherly Vnity are the Power and the Life the Soul and very Essence of all true Religion With these Religion may be false but without the other it can never be true Esay 5.21 Wo unto them says the Prophet that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight And what can be more Evident than that these People must be so to the highest degrees of Folly and Frenzy who expose the Peace and Well-fare of the Church to ruine and Distruction in complaisance to their private ill-grounded Opinions in mere matters of Indifferency who neglect a certain Duty for a Doubtful Supposition and have less Esteem for Charity than a Scruple or a Fancy who by their obstinate Practice so contrary to all Antiquity and so wholly new and therefore Vncertain set themselves in the Throne of Wisdom and Prudence much above all the Learned Pious and glorious Governors of the Church Saints and Martyrs which have been in all Ages since the Son of God laid the Foundation of it with his precious Blood Nay even above the Son of God himself who not only left that Government in his Church as shall be shewn hereafter but by the Miraculous continuance and preservation of that Government has manifested that he does approve it and that he has upheld it by his mighty Power and Wisdom LET Dissenters therefore shew us perspicuously when there was any other Government in the Church than that of Bishops Let them shew us when ever the Church was without a Publique Liturgy since that composed by St. James When ever Christians were without Priests to attend the Altar Heb. 13.10 of which they who serve the Jewish Tabernacle have no right to Eat or that these were of the Peoples chusing and not Ordained by Bishops to their Sacred Function Let them shew us where ever any person was permitted to Entertain the People with a long Extempore Prayer more to the displaying his own Abilities than to edify them more to disparage others who cannot who dare not if they can be so bold with the Dreadful Majesty of Heaven than to bring them into Charity with such Persons whose considerative Modesty stands amazed at the thoughts of the Divine Omnipotence as having been taught by the Holy Spirit Eccles 5.1 2. That God is in Heaven and we on Earth and therefore our words ought to be few and that it is a foolish Presumption to think we can please him by breaking his commands by being rash with our Mouths and hasty with our hearts to utter any thing before God for they who do so consider not that they give the sacrifice of Fools Rom. 3.8 and do Evil which an Apostle tells us we must not at any Rate be guilty of not though we may reasonably hope for a good Effect from evil Actions whose Damnation he there says is just LET them shew us these things either positively commanded of God or prohibited Universally practised by the Church or condemned or otherways let them confess that they are wiser than the Generations of their Fore-fathers in Christ wiser than the Apostles and all the holy Martyrs who with their Blood Sealed and Delivered the Truth of these things down to us And if they will call these Practices Antichristian Superstitious and Unlawful if they will tear off the Ornaments of their Mother nay and Murther her too because she will not consent to betray her self and her trust to their Novel Wisdom if they will more barbaroufly than the Roman Souldiers rend the seamless Coat of Christ to patch up another of their own Inventions we must pity them and pray for them in the Language of our blessed Jesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23.34 and yet even that Charity does not deprive us of using all Lawful ways and means to defend our selves from their injurious incroachments nor is it meant that our Charity ought to be so defenceless as voluntarily to Expose us to their Injustice and Cruelty And that glorious Law which commands us to love and pray for our Enemies does not oblige us to offer our throats a Sacrifice to their Swords nor are we bound to be so kind to them as to be Cruel to our selves I could heartily wish the sad Effects of the Decay of Christian Charity among us were only the Cloudy apparitions of my own fears and imaginations Airy Combats and Meteors of the Mind But alas we may but too sorrowfully invert the saying of the Royal Prophet Psal 44.7 We have heard with our Ears and our Fathers have told us nay miserable people that we are we have seen with our Eyes these afflicting Truths For no sooner was the Church of England stept out of the Errors and Darkness of Rome but the Devil the great Incendiary of the World envious of our Happiness begun to sow the Tares of Dissention among us I will not repeat the Names of those Authors of our Misery but I desire all Dissenters of what Names soever to consider what have been the Effects of these Differences which for this 80 years they have with such Hereditary Violence and Animosity maintained against the Church of England What is it that has banish't all Charity from the Minds and Lives of Men What is it that has made all those Heats Strifes and Divisions those bitter Railings that Hatred Emulation and at last Separation from the Communion of Saints which is one Article of our Faith between people of different Opinions What is it therefore that has sacrificed Faith to Opinion From what Fountain flow'd all those fearful streams of blood which so lately staind our yet blushing Fields Scaffolds nay our very Temples and Altars From what Coast blew those Whirlwinds of Rebellion and Sedition not privy but publique Conspiracy which threw down all Crowns and Mitres Churches and Palaces every thing Sacred and Civil which occasion'd the ruine of so many Millions of Souls Bodies and Estates This Cloud which was at first no bigger than a Mans hand which afterwards cover'd the face of the Heavens with Storms and Tempests Thunder and Lightning like the dismal Plague of Egypt Fire mingled with Hail was nothing but the dislike which some persons had that their sense was not made the standard of Religion and because contrary to their good liking some Ceremonies were thought fit to be retained in the Church as being of great Antiquity of Excellent Use and necessity which they would have had totally abolished THESE men whose Tempers were warmer
than their Charity and whose Zeal was much too heavy for their Judgment either not considering or not caring what must be the necessary consequences of these sparks of Dissention set their Lungs to work as well as their Wits to blow them up into a Flame pretending to the Vnwary that that Fire which was indeed of their own kindling was the only Gospel Light and that which by its future Effects has proved it self a Portentous Comet was the Day star from on high which was sent to visit them to lead them to Eternal Light under the Glorious Sun of Righteousness Had it burnt like the kind and wondrous lambent flame in Moses his bush without consuming it we might have been induced to believe that God was in the Fire But alas it was too ravenous to permit us to continue in that belief and the World has found by dear Experience that it was of the Extraction of that Fire St. James describes unto us Jam. 3.6.8 Behold says he how great a matter a little Fire kindleth and the Tongue is a Fire a World of Iniquity it sets on fire the whole Course of Nature and it is set on fire of Hell being an untamable little Animal an unruly Evil full of deadly Poison Especially when therewith we bless God even the Father and curse Men who are made after the similitude of God HOWEVER to justifie their Division and Dislike they did indeavour with might and main to pull down Babylon as they call'd not only Rome but the Reformation that being the odious name of whatever displeases them because it was not model'd according to that Platform which they therefore fancied because it was of their own devising Discourses full of Gall and Wormwood instead of Meekness and Humility flew like lightning from their Pens as well as Invectives and bitter Reproaches from their Mouths And to make some shew that they were not without Reason a new Frame of Church Government wholy unpresidented and never before practiced was minted at Geneva This glistering Medal as the coursest Medals will do when they come first off the Mint shone with such a dazeling lustre in the Eyes of those who Coïn'd it as the silver shrines of Diana did in the Opinion of Demetrius and presently I will not say positively for the same Reasons it gain'd as many and as tumultuous Worshippers who like the wild Ephesians cri'd up this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thunderbolt newly dropt from the Clouds with as much Ernestness and as little Reason Where some crïed one thing Acts 19.32 and some another for the Assembly was confused as it always happens where any thing is managed by Tumult and Passion and the greater part knew not wherefore they were come together but some there were who did and they who did not yet were made believe they were as good as the best Yet was not even this Glorious and thorough Reformation though new run and cast so pure and perfect from all the dross of Superstition and Corruption but that some of quicker sight and sounder Judgment among themselves espied some Babylonish rust upon it and straight they began after the Example of Presbytery to make use of their Christian Liberty and to separate likewise the Pure from the Vile THUS was the Unfortunate Ichabod of Presbytery born amongst us with the Death of his Mother and the Dismal overthrow of the Holy Church 1 Sam. 4. The Glory departed from our Israel the Ark was lost and there was a great slaughter among the People Then arose whole swarms of Sects or rather Insects in Religion with guilded Wings but Scorpions Tayls painted Bodies but still poisonous Stings and as if Beelzebub the God of Flies and Ekron had been let loose among us nothing was heard but the confused buzzing of these differing Opinions who all pretended to gather Honey for the Hive but were in truth Sacrilegious Robbers agreeing in nothing but their mutual hatred and common design against the Church of England whose utter Extirpation was the mark of their United Conspiracy in order afterwards every one to Establish themselves not only upon hers but the Ruine of their differing Confederates THESE have been and I wish I could say they were not at present the sad natural and necessary Effects of breaking the Unity of Government in the outward Administration of the Service of God which crumbles a glorious Church into the Epicurean Atoms of Faction and Confusion till at last there remains little of it besides the Name and most certainly they who have once shaken hands with this Vnity must of necessity in a short time take their leave of Charity for these are the Twins of true Religion which live and dye together and when these are gone the tongues of Men and Angels the Faith of Miracles and the flaming Zeal of Martyrs are but sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals they may make a little jingling noise of Religion but it is to be feared the louder they are the more Empty of the soul and substance of true Piety and Christianity So that those who do believe that Charity is so of the Essence of Religion as good Works are of Faith without which the one is as dead and vain as the other will easily be convinced both by Reason and Experience of the absolute Necessity that there is of Vnity in Point of Government to preserve that Charity alive since without this Vnity of Government to determine and give a Period to the Differences of several Opinions which shall be obtruded as Matters of Faith all Religion presently degenerates into vain and endless Disputes these produce Divisions Factions and Parties those run immediately into separation of Communion that leads men headlong to Animosities and Hatred and Hatred always ends in Confusion and every evil Work as St. James has well inform'd us Jam. 3.17 For says he the Wisdom which is from above is peaceable as well as pure full of Mercy and good Fruits and the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace and all other Wisdom which banishes Charity with a pretence of Establishing Piety is Sensual Carnal Devilish Excellent recommendations of Reformation carried on without Nay against this Charity and Unity in the Goverment of a National Church CHAP. VIII THUS we see that Unity in Point of Government as well as Faith is absolutely necessary in a National Church to preserve it in Peace and Charity and that is in plain Terms to render it truly Christian and a part of the Catholique Church which we all profess to believe as an Article of our Faith We shall see in the next place how necessary this Vnity in point of Government is to maintain Christian Discipline in the World and how without it that great Power of the Keys which Christ gave to his Apostles and their Successors for the Government of his Church becomes impracticable and of no Use or Authority for suppressing Vice or Encouraging true Piety
and Religion LOUD and clamorous are the Complaints and Declamations against the vitiousness and Debauchery of the present Age and not without too evident Truth and Reason Impiety which was formerly used to wait for the twilight dare now walk bare fac't and stare upon the Sun St. Paul says of the modest Debauchees of his Age They that are drunken are drunken in the Night but now licentious men are become so impudent as to scorn to throw the Mantle of Darkness over their vitious Intemperance that they take a Pleasure and a Pride to Riot in the day time and to affront God and Men and even humane Nature it self by their prodigious and Publique Sins and Follies They who did ill formerly hated the light but now Men study to affront it and oblige that pure and innocent Blessing to become not only a Witness but an Assistant to their Brutish and shameless Disorders and would loose their greatest pleasure should they not expose themselves and their deeds of Darkness to the discovery of the Day ALL this is laid upon the Government of the Church which though it be as innocent as the light by which they are boldly acted yet must they conspire in the guilt of these horrid Crimes if we will believe Dissenters who blush not to lay this false Accusation to the Charge of the Government that thereby they may render it Criminal and Odious and themselves and Party Clear and Innocent when as in truth and reality the Guilt of these miscarriages will be found to lie at their own Doors and let them wipe their mouths never so demurely and say they have done no Evil Prov. 30.20 with Solomon's Common Woman let them wash their hands with Pilate and say they are guiltless I doubt not to make it appear to the contrary It is a bold Charge and I know they will start at it as much as the Disciples did when our Saviour told them That one of them should betray him and be as forward as they to Cry out Is it I Who we but what if it prove true and be made good against them I will indeavour it and yet with all the Christian Compassion that I am capable of for I have no design to Expose their Persons to hatred but to bring them to true Repentance by shewing them the Danger of those Ways which with the specious shew of Righteousness and Holiness deceive them into a Contempt of the terrible Authority of the Church and others by their Example into all Sensuality and Impiety THAT Christ left to the Governors of his Church the Power of the Keys is most Evident from his own plain and clear Words For when he was to leave this World he called his Apostles to him and Then said Jesus unto them again Joh. 20.23 Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you there is their Mission and Commission for their Function and Government and when he had said this Matth. 18.18 he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the holy Ghost there is their Unction and Ordination their ability to perform the Duty and discharge the trust reposed in them Whos 's soever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained There is the Office and the Power which was put into their hands the Expedient by which they were to govern and Rule the Church of God And though the Romanists endeavour to Monopolize even in the literal and worst sence this great Power only to Saint Peter and his Successors as they pretend the Roman Bishops only are yet nothing is more clear than that our Saviour intended them all an Equal share and a Power to derive it to their Successors in all Churches to the End of the World His gracious Promise of being with them extending unto all Times Places and Persons who should succeed any of the Apostles as well as St. Peter The Church being built not only upon him but upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Jesus being himself the Chief and Corner-stone in whom and by whom the whole glorious Fabrique is Vnited and Compleated THIS Power of the Keys of binding and loosing is the Power of Excommunication of Offenders and Absolution of Penitents and is indeed all the Power which Christ left with his Church and the only Jurisdiction which the Governors can exercise in and over it For all Corporal Punishments are properly and peculiarly vested by God himself in the power of the Temporal and Civil Magistrate who carries the Sword and is ordained of God for that very purpose and Design as St. Paul acquaints us Rom. 13. for he beareth not the Sword in vain but is the Minister of God a Revenger to Execute punishment upon him that doeth Evil. AN Instance of this terrible Sentence of Excommunication we have inflicted upon the Incestuous Corinthian and that with a great Formality 1 Cor. 5.5 This is my Determination saith the Apostle In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when yeare gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan as he tells us in another place that he had delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan that they might learn not to Blaspheme By virtue of this dreadful Power it was that the Primitive Governors of the Church even when they had no assistance but all opposition from the Secular Powers yet kept the Flock of Christ in all Obedience Subjection good Order and Discipline Then were Christians Miracles of Charity Piety and Devotion to the wondring Pagans when they were obliged to those Duties by no Humane Laws when there were no fears of Prisons Tortures Confiscations or Banishment unless for being and owning themselves to be Christians but the only fear of Excommunication and being put out of thâ— Fellowship of the Saints here on Earth and denyed Entrance into the Congregation of the Faithful of being debarred from receiving the Holy Eucharist and joyning in the publique Service and Worship of God was more forcible to make them Holy Obedient and Vnanimous than all the Torments devised by Persecution were able â—o make them Prophane or Vitious For why They did believe that unless the Governors of the Church the Successors of the Apostles did remit their Sins on Earth they should not find remission in Heaven they therefore believed it because Christ the Eternal Truth had said it They did believe that unless they were United by Communion to the Holy Catholique Church they could never hope for the Remission of Sins the Resurrection of the Body unto Life Everlasting which is the most ancient Confession of the Christian Faith and which with great probability is supposed to be delivered by the Apostles to the Church as a short sum of Faith necessary to Salvation NOR were they more fearful of this formidable Sentence of Excommunication than desirous of the Absolution of
for suffering this which they will call Persecution for Righteousuess sake Now from this way of Procedure these inconveniencies will necessarily follow FIRST The most Notorious Sinners shall be incouraged in their Impenitence and shall be perswaded that to be reconciled to God Almighty there is no necessity of Submission Repentance or Absolution from the Church which they have offended but rather they shall be inspired with principles of Hatred and Revenge against the Church from which they are Excommunicated and though they be denyed Salvation without Repentance in one Church yet they can go to another where they shall certainly meet with the Promise of it upon cheap and easie terms viz. those of Joyning with them in their way of Worship SECONDLY Hereby men come to have a mean and contemptible Opinion of this Power of the Church And value Excommunication from any Church no more than some idle Servants do to be turned out of their Masters Doors who will presently tell you that the World is wide enough and if one will not another will That there are more Services to be had So will this sort of People tell you there are more Churches and no question but where in any Nation this Principle is allowed there would be almost as many Churches as People and when once they are come to slight the Censure and the Church they will never so much as think of being released from the Dangerous Bond of Excommunication or to have their Sins remitted upon Earth by the power of that Church which they have offended THIRDLY Hereby others of the most Loose and Licencious Lives will be incouraged to continue impious and Irreligious though owning no Sect or Faction And coming by their Example to despise this Power of the true Church and to look upon Excommunication as a thing of no Danger they will value no Church but abandon themselves to all manner of Wickedness Irreligion and Atheism and provided they can but scape the danger of Humane Laws they will never trouble themselves about the Ecclesiastical FOURTHLY People will in a little time come to believe that the only Duty of the Minister consists in their abilities to Preach and Exhort and that to Admonish and Correct is no part of their Office and this being so easie a thing to be attain'd and many times Eloquence as before was observed being a Natural Talent Hereby Bold Illiterate Unexamined Unqualified Conceited and Pragmatical Opiniatres will invade the Sacred Function by which means Errors will abound new Heresies will spring up daily and old ones revive flourish and increase without control or contradiction the Holy Sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism will be either neglected and laid aside or prophaned by unhallowed hands and in short those great Mischiefs which are so much feared must break in upon us either Atheism or superstitious will Worship the Commandments and Traditions of Wilful Ignorant and Erroneous Men and when once the Church is trampled under foot by so many Sects and Heresies Ignorance will daily get ground and that sets the Dore wide open either to the dreaded thing call'd Popery to Paganism or the Turkish Alchoran which comes with the fairest Pretence and the finest Dress to win their Favour I do heartily wish all this were spoken like the Prophecy of Jonah against the Ninivites what was such occasion of grief and discontent to him as to oblige him in a sullen humor to wish to dye would be to me the greatest Joy of my Life But Experience that fatal Mistress has taught us the truth of some of these Effects and may well give us terrible apprehensions of what we may expect For no sooner can an Offender fall under the deserved Censure of Excommunication or but in the danger of it but presently he turns Dissenter is received into the bosom of some Sect or Faction and then he bids Defiance to all the Power of the Church and fears nothing but the Secular Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo Nay I have my self heard some Persons boast of their being Excommunicated and pretend to receive it as a savour to be prohibited coming into the Church from these mens contempt and vilifying of this dreadful Sentence others who have no Religion have learned to despise it too nor is there any thing in it formidable to them besides the expence of their Money to the Lay-Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts and when once men come to place all their Religion in fear of the Secular Power and have no other bridle upon their unruly Passions and Desires besides the Reins of Humane Punishments and the Laws of the Civil Magistrate it is not to be admired if they run headlong into Brutish Impiety and downright Atheism and they who are taught to believe and easily learn the Lesson both by Example and Precept that the Priest or Bishop has no more Power over their Souls than over their Bodies will not be long before they Despise both the Persons and their Office and when men are arrived at that for my part I look upon their condition to be next to Desperate for however they may please and flatter themselves in their Gay and Jolly humor of despising these contemptible Priests the affront is really done to God Almighty and I cannot see any great security in such Atheistical Drollery Hear ye Despisers and Tremble at what our Great Lord and Saviour says concerning the 70 Disciples whom he sent abroad to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me and St. Paul is plain 1 Tim. 4.8 He that despiseth despiseth not Man but God WHAT can be the End of this but Misesery here and Eternal Damnation hereafter He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy Heb. 10.28 29. of how much sorer punishment then are they worthy who despise the Son of God which all those do who despise his Servants the Governors of the Church who are sent by him which if I do not prove let them go on and despise but if they are let them have a care of falling into the hands of a revenging God for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 12.28 for our God is a consuming fire This is certainly the utmost despight to the Spirit of Grace and the most unpardonable affront that can be offer'd to the Divine Clemency and against which there is no remedy A dismal Example of which we have in the Nation of the Jews That God who proclaims himself Merciful slow to anger of great Compassion and that repenteth him of Evil after he had born all their Iniquities and Rebellions could not bear with this 2 Chron. 36.15 16 c. For the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling
place but they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Words and misused his Prophets until the Wrath of God arose against them and there was no remedy Then did the overflowing scourges come rolling upon them Fire and Sword and Captivity Desolation and utter Subversion God of his infinite Mercy have compassion upon his People and his dwelling Place and turn the hearts of the Despisers and disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just that we may not despise our selves and Nation into such a Dismal and inevitable Ruin CHAP. IX THUS have I shewn the Necessity that there is in every National Church of Unity in point of Government as well as Faith upon a Religious account Let us now come to Examine what Necessity there is upon a Politique account as we are united together into one Community of Men as well as a Society of Christians WE must consider therefore that Religion was designed to improve even our Interest in this World to the best advantage of Living and that to put on Christianity we are not to put off Humanity or by learning Obedience to God to forget what we owe to our Neighbour or our King The Eternal Prince of Peace as well as Truth came to Preach Peace unto All not to Embroyl the World or unsettle the Thrones of Princes but to Establish them for the Throne is Established by Righteousness Pro. 16.12 That glorious Heir of all things rejected the offer of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and positively affirms That his Kingdom is not of this World and therefore when he took upon him Humane Nature he own'd himself a Subject of the Roman Empire and not only paid the Tribute for himself and Saint Peter but Commands all men to do the same and the great Design of the Gospel which he came to Preach was to make all men better in their feveral Estates and Capacities of Life better men and therefore better Subjects to Princes This was the particular Care of the Church to inspire the Converts to Christianity with these Principles of Duty and Obedience so necessary to the Peace and Happiness of the World So St. Paul commands Ro. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers Thus St. Peter Teaches and Commands 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of Evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for this is the Will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men This being then one main Design of Christian Religion let us see of what Necessity Vnity in point of Government in the Church is in order to it and what influence it has upon the Political Government of a Christian State THE Root of all our Miseries Divisions and Disorders is That men take this for a Principle That they may be Disobedient to Lawful Authority without danger of Damnation and so far has the mischief of this fretting Gangrene spread it self that many People esteem it a part of their Religion to disobey the Civil Power and think it is impossible for them to be saved should they be obedient to its Commands which they think are inconsistent with the Commands of God This Error must proceed either from Malice or Mistake I will be so charitable as to suppose not from the first and therefore looking upon it as the Child of Ignorance I will endeavour to state the Case truly that so the Understanding of Men being informed by Truth they may either be reformed or left without Excuse THE great Design of the infinitely glorious good and Wise Creator being the Happiness of Mankind he therefore proportioned a Method for the obtaining of it and Man being Created with a double Capacity of Injoying Happiness both here and hereafter therefore did that Excellent Wisdom appoint Religion as the Way and Means for attaining both and for the accomplishment of those Noble and Excellent Ends it is furnished with Rules and Precepts which bear a double Respect to this double Capacity one part Conducts us to God and future Happiness in the External fruition of his grorious Presence in Heaven and the other Leads us to the Happiness of this Mortal State by the Politicl Rules of Living Well with a mutual respect not only to our own but the happiness of one another by the lawful and moderate Use and Enjoyment of the inferior Creation which God therefore made that he might shew his Glory his Wisdom his Power and his Goodness to the Sons of Men. So that the sum of all Religion in order to obtain this Happiness both here and hereafter is to believe aright and to Live Well and both these are so Essentially necessary to Salvation that the one will not obtain it without the other for the Devils believe Jam. 2.19 though it makes them tremble To believe aright we must refer our selves to those Divine Truths which God has from Heaven revealed to us concerning himself and our Duty the short sums of which Faith the Church has collected out of the Sacred Writings in the three Famous Creeds of the Apostles St. Athanasius and the Councel of Nice To Live well it is required that a man submits to all those practical Precepts and Rules of Life which God has commanded in his Will revealed in his holy Word by Justice Temperance Prudence Chastity Obedience c. and for the attainment of Happiness by these Rules in this present Life God has not left Men in a wild parity like Brutes but has by the Wisdom of his Providence divided the World into superior and inferior Degrees of Men Subjects and Soveraigns intrusting one to Rule and Govern and commanding the other to Obey and for this he has left many Positive Commands too well known and too numerous to be here repeated THESE Powers thus Ordained of God and armed with his Sword to execute Vengeance on them that do evil are vested with Authority to make such Decrees Laws and Sanctions as in their Wisdom they shall Judg conducive to the Happiness of the People committed to their Charge that so they may be a Terror to evil Works and encouragers of them that are Good And to them prosecuting this great and good Design and to those Laws which do promote it all men are bound to submit not only for wrath Rom. 13.5 but for Conscience sake And it is impossible any man should be saved who lives in a wilful Disobedience and that Power and those Commands and the Reason is because all such Disobedience is a sin against God himself against his Positive Will and Command and I think there is no person who will be so hardy as to maintain in Words however they may do it in Actions that Salvation is to be had or hoped for by such as live in manifest
Disobedience to any one Command of God For St. James assures us that the keeping of the whole Law will not countervail the wilful breach of one Point but that whoever does so is guilty of all and he adds the Reason Jam. 2.10 11. For he that said Do not commit Adultery said also Do not Kill And he that said do not Kill said also Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers Now to infer with him If thou commit no Adultery If thou do not Kill yet if thou art not subject to the Higher Powers thou art become a Trangressor of the Law a Sinner before God For sin is the transgression of Gods Law and therefore as St. John tells us 1 Joh. 3.15 No Murderer has Eternal life abiding in him So neither has any who does not submit to the Higher POWERS any Eternal Life abiding in him because they are both Transgressors of the Holy Law and Commandment of God THUS far I think all Men Good and Bad will go along with me but the pinch of the Question is How far this Obedience is due and what are the Limits of the Authority of Superiors Whether the Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrate ought to be Obeyed in all their Commands which concern Religion or the Worship of God To this I Answer by distinguishing according to the Old and True Maxim of Logicians Qui bené distinguit bené docet The commands therefore of Superiors are either concerning Faith and Manners or Government and Order As to matters of Faith neither the onenor the other havethe least power to alter abrogate impose or diminish the least Tittle or Iota of it For Faith being of Divine Revelation and the Law by which God Almighty will have us guided in what concerns himself is like him Immutable and Unchangeable and is only subject to his Authority who is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith Now the true Faith is what is contained in Scripture either in direct Words or plain Consequence This all Christian Kings Princes and Governors are bound to maintain and ought to be its Defenders but not to Invade or Usurp a Dominion over it And should they make any Law to the prejudice of this Faith no man ought to obey them for here the Rule holds good That we are to obey God rather than Men but neither will this Authorize any Persons who are Subjects to those Powers to Rebel against them or Oppose them more than by endeavouring with Meekness and Charity to maintain that Faith Nay should they impose Penalties upon such as were disobedient to their Laws in matters of Faith 't is the Glory of Christian Religion to teach men to suffer patiently but not to seek Revenge or to endeavour to free themselves or the Faith from danger by flying to unlawful Arms which would be like Vzzah's Folly for which he was Smitten to lay our hands upon the Ark when the Oxen stumble and shake it and to suppose that God either would not or could not take any care to defend that Faith which he himself had planted in the World THIS was the Case of the Apostles Act. 4..3 The Chief Priest and Counsel commanded them not to speak at all in the Name of Jesus had they been so minded they might have raised a Tumult for the Captain and Officers who went to apprehend them brought them without Violence because they went without resisting fearing as much as their Guards lest the inraged People should rescue them by stoning the Officers And when the High Priest charges them with Disobedience to his Commands St. Peter tells them it was a matter of Faith what they had seen and heard and were commanded by the Son of God to Preach whom they ought to obey rather than Men. This was the Case of the Primitive Christians under the Heathen and persecuting Emperors Did the Emperor command them to his Wars they went willingly Fought gallantly sometimes purchast Victories with their Prayers as well as Sword Did he exact Tribute from them they paid it freely Command to renounce Christ or to Blaspheme him or to offer but a single grain of Incence to the Idols or Emperors Statue though to save their Lives they refused presently Did he take away their Estates for their Disobedience to his Edicts they suffer'd patiently Did he expose them to Racks Tortures Wild beasts and Flames they went to them joyfully indured them miraculously and so obtain'd the Glorious Crown of Martyrdom All this while not a hand lift up against the Lords Anointed their Soveraign unless to Heaven to pray to God for his Pardon and Conversion not a Tongue moves against his Government to call it Tyrannical Unlawful or Antichristian though in reality it was such Not a Pen is sharpned against him or his Ministers of State no invectives or Exhortations to Rebellion to depose or Murder him and indeed nothing farther than to Apologize for their Innocence and to manifest that they were his most obedient Subjects and free from all the Calumnies of being Seditious Disturbers of the Government or Peace of the Empire THE same may be said of Good Manners as of Faith for Justice Temperance Innocence and Purity being Commands of God no Earthly power can either dispence with them or lawfully command the contrary Vices or if they do they may nay ought to be disobey'd BUT Secondly The Commands of our Superiors may concern Order and Government and herein they ought Universally to be obey'd as well in Ecclesiastical as Civil Laws and Commands provided they do not herein manifestly or by consequence Oppose Faith or Good Manners and that for these Reasons FIRST Because Order is absolutely Necessary as well in the Church as in the State and is Positively commanded by God Let every thing be done Decently and in Order 1 Cor. 14.40 and that for a most solid and weighty Reason For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace Vers 33. as in all the Churches of the Saints Confusion is absolutely unlawful God disowns it Peace is absolutely Necessary in all Churches of Saints without Order there can be no Peace nor indeed any thing but Confusion without Governors to appoint and determine Differences arising about Modes and Matters of Decency there can be no Peace because Differences must be endless and without Submission to these Governors and their final Determinations both in Church and State they are no longer Rulers and Governours but the Order which God has appointed in the World to procure Peace and Happiness is utterly Subverted and Overthrown For Government and Obedience do mutually suppose each other and as Logicians say Pater est filii Pater a Father is therefore a Father because he has a Child so a Governor a King a Magistrate in Church or State is therefore such because he has People subject and obedient to him and as all the Power of Governors is limited to those things which are left undetermined by Gods Positive
of a Society into one common Body of which Unity is the Soul and whatsoever be the Cause of this Disunion the Effect is always an Alienation of Affections among those who differ one from another Now as there is nothing that makes so close a Vnion in the minds of Men as their concurrence in the same thoughts Judgment and Sentiments about any Matters especially those of Religion So there is nothing that makes so great and Irreconcilable Distances between People as their being and owning themselves of differing Judgments and Opinions For Religion is like a Common Centre in which all the Lines of mutual Kindness meet and are United together in an indivisible Point And we do more passionately love those who resemble us in our thoughts than in our outward Lineaments and Proportions and have a natural Aversion for those who are unlike us in our Thoughts And the reason is because this Discord robs us of the pleasure of Life which is Society and where the entertainment consists in mutual Jarrs and endless Disputings continual Contradictions of which all men are impatient the Conversation must needs be disagreeable for who ever contradicts another supposes himself more wise and the other foolish and where the knowledg of these differences is manifest even in their silent Interviews it defeats them of all the pleasure of Converse and Society and makes men uneasie in the very Company of those who are neither beloved by them nor love them as all men believe of those who oppose them and differ from them in their Judgments So that it is not to be expected they should be ready to do those good Offices one for another in order to the Common Good of the Society but rather all the Mischiefs and Injuries which they can as Enemies as all esteem those who are not United to them by Love and Kindness and how happy any Society is like to prove that is thus disjoynted in it self is not difficult to conjecture BUT these Animosities are extreamly heightened in regard there is always something more than bare Opinion in the Difference and that it is impossible totally to separate Interest from Religion and that therefore no man can look upon another as directly invading the one without obliquely designing against the other and what ever Passion men may have for their Religion they are inseparably married to their Interest the thred of that is twisted with the Stamina Vitae being indeed esteemed Essential both to the being well-being of the Body For it is not in Religion as it is in Philosophical Contests where how eager soever men may appear to defend a Paradox yet they are not Solicitous whether it be true or false for what matters it between two hot Combatants whether there be any Land in the Moon or not Since though there be they have no Mannors nor Lordships there and if there be not they are never the poorer of a Farthing BUT in the Quarrels of Religion there is always a Meum and Tuum and Men suspect not without good Reason that the difference of Opinion is but the Colour or Pretext it is Interest that is the first Mover and the Ultimate Design and this prevents all hope of Reconciliation till one party do either voluntarily or by constraint relinquish their pretences to the others Right for he who will invade the Possession of what another enjoys by endeavouring to be a Disseisor becomes an Enemy And there are few who arrive to that height of self-denial to hate themselves that they may love their Enemies or to expose themselves to the Inconveniences of cold Nakedness and Hunger which Nature abhors that they may feed and cloth their Enemies nor does Charity command it for though that Compassionate Grace look abroad for Objects of Pity yet she always begins her Work at home nor is any man obliged to pray for or love his Enemies so as not to provide for his own Family 1 Tim. 5.8 and by Charity to deny the Faith and be worse than an Infidel Such Saints are Martyrs of the Greek Calends And no person can Esteem such as endeavour to devest him either of Power Authority Estate or Possession Honor or Profit but as his particular Enemy and an Enemy to God and Religion which commands that no man should invade anothers Right in that great Command Thou shalt not Covet Now where there are several distinct Churches in the same Nation there being both Power and Maintenance annexed to the Office of the Clergy they will necessarily incroach one upon another and because what the one gains the other must loose the contrariety of Interests will widen the Difference between them even to the utmost Extremity of Hatred and Animosity and whilst every Church will labour to agrandize it self both in Riches and Power by lessening the Esteem Honour Power and Revenues of the other it will become a quarrel of Interest as well as Religion and let any person if he can Justifie a Principle that by maintaining Domestique Quarrels must be ruinous to Society and all the Peace and Happiness of the present state of Life under the fair pretence of Religion LET Dissenters tell us what they please and if their dislike of the Government in the Church is purely upon the account of Religion former Experience has made the World sufficiently sensible that the Dignity Power and Revenues of the Church were the greatest Crimes of the Government And that they who could not approve of those Honors Titles and Estates in Bishops and the dignified Clergy could yet very well digest both their Power and Revenues when they came by the Sacrilegious hands of Vsurping Powers to be conferr'd on themselves AND as these Quarrels will be most certain so they will be Endless and Eternal for admit once of many Forms of Church Government in the same Nation and no sooner shall one be uppermost but the Envy of the others and their fear lest they should be crush't or overshadowed by it will make all the lesser Churches conspire for their common Security and Interest to undermine and overthrow it And when they have by that joynt confederation Effected that then will the most Powerful of the Victorious Party step and Exalt it self into the Place and Power of the former which will procure it the Hatred of all the rest who will not fail by the same Arts and Methods to dismount that and Establish themselves by which means there will be no end of Factions Quarrels and Ambitions striving who shall be the Uppermost All this while Religion will be the Pretence but the State shall really suffer and it being as impossible to separate them as to punish the Christian and not the Man it must be under all the most violent Agitations and Tempests and at last suffer most certain Shipwrack THIS was the true state of our Case in England during our late Revolutions the Church and Religion were made to lead the Dance but according
dispersed at a common Charge would induce one to believe the Case were our own and particularly one intitled An account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government c. where the Writer does Greg. Naz. Or. 1. as Nazianzen says Arm himself to be Eloquent against the Truth abusing that the better to abuse others into a belief of the most Notorious Calumnies and Sarcasms against the Government the King and his Ministers the Judges and who not As if all conspiring to alter the Establisht Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical And is as Industrious as Malicious to set us all into a Flame To do this at a Season when we are under the apprehensions of a Forrein War for the defence of our selves and all Europe against the danger of a Neighbour too near not to be feared and grown too great to be suffered looks and certainly is a Design of the greatest Mischief and if the Authors are not Dissenters either from the Church of England or from all Religion as well as from the Court of England and the Interest of England the World is strangely mistaken the Sibboleth which lisps so demurely in every Page plainly shews that it was Penn'd by the Men of Ephraim who have a design to Quarrel with our Royal Jephtha their Deliverer by the unparallel'd Amnesty from the Ammonites of their former Delinquencies THESE are the proper effects of Jealousies and Misunderstandings between a Prince and his People the natural result not only of Diversity of Government in the Church Tollerated but permitted even by Connivence And what can be the end of Disunion between these two whom God has joyned together and no man ought to put asunder and who ought to live together in all the happy Caresses of a Conjugal Affection what can be expected from such a Divorce but a troublesome Raign to the Prince an uneasy Life to the People who must always be under the apprehensions of dismal Revolutions and unhappy Days and whilest neither of them esteems themselves secure they both become Miserable Whereas on the contrary Unity in the Government of the Church being as before was said Political as well as Religious will remove all these unnecessary Fears and Imaginary Dangers it will beget Love and a mutual Confidence in each other between a King and his Subjects which is the only happiness of the Crown as well as of the Nuptial State Of which one may say as the Poet. Faelices tèr ampliùs Quos irrupta tenet Copula Nec malis divulsa Querimonijs When there is no Murmuring or Complaining but the one Obeys with Pleasure what the other Commands with Love and love the one as much to be Commanded as the other to Command But alas this is so far from being hoped for so long as there is this Disunion in the Political Government of the Church as it would be if there were so in the Political Laws of the State it being as impossible to satisfie all Parties with the one as with the other and there being notwithstanding the same reason that those who are dissatisfied should yet yield Obedience as well to the one as to the other since they are both of the same Nature and levell'd at the same End FROM what has been said it is evident that a Disunion in the Political Government of the Church in the same Nation Lays the perpetual Foundation of Dreadful Changes and Revolutions in the Government of the State and by sowing Jealousies Fears and Discontents in the Minds of Men it gives continual Opportunities to the Ambitious Covetous Envious Proud and Discontented to run the Nation into Civil Broyls and Intestine Quarrels for which reason Solomon gives this necessary Caution to all those who will be the Disciples of true Wisdom My Son fear thou God and the King and meddle not with those who are given to change Which of necessity all Dissenters must be whilst they believe themselves the only People who Worship God in Spirit and Truth and therefore contrary to the manifest Design of the Gospel were they what they pretend or believe indeavour their own Establishment by force and violence the confusion and utter subversion of the Government which does oppose them and their pernicious Practices so dishonourable to Christian Religion and the Protestant Cause so destructive of Peace and Charity so contrary to the common good of all Society and the Happiness of Mankind in General and in particular to the safety and security the Settlement and Establishment of that Church and Nation of which they are Members and to which by the Rules of Religion they owe all Obedience CHAP. XI NOR will the Mischief of this Disunion in the Political Government in the Church confine it self at home or be contented with making us unhappy among our selves but will most certainly Expose any Nation to the Power and Attemps of Foreign Enemies for Vnity in any Government is like the state of Health in the Natural Body where the Muscles are firm and Robust the Nerves strong the Ligaments compacted the Joynts close the whole Strength intire and vigorous and every Member obedient to the Head whereas on the contrary want of Vnion renders the Body Politique crazy and infirm the Head may command the Hands or the Feet but they are out of joynt and cannot move or if they do it is with so much Pain or Trouble with such a Feebleness and Languor as is next to Impotence it self and when any People are in this Condition they become an Easy Prey as well as a great Temptation to any Foreign Power FOR first This render them contemptible to their Foreign Enemies for Men always make a Judgment of the strength of any Nation in proportion to their Vnity among themselves for what does it signifie though a Nation be never so Rich or Populous if they be not Vnanimous their Enemies must needs thus Argue with themselves What though this People abound in Money and swarm with Inhabitants so long as they are like a Rope of Sand it is a sign of the goodness of their Country as well as the Weakness of the Nation there will be the better booty and the cheaper Victory the Conquest will pay us well for our Pains and our Pains cannot be great to subdue a People who are already half Conquered by their Civil Dissentions we are not to go to dispute a bloody Conquest but a certain Victory Their mutual Fears have alienated the Affections of the People from their Prince and they who have been so Prodigal to waste all the stock of Loyalty which was left them as a Patrimony from their Ancestors will easily be tempted to sell the Reversion of their Allegiance to a new Soveraign Nor shall an Invader ever need to fear a Party who for ready Money in hand and large Promises of future Payments and Gratifications in whatever they demand which he may Pay he knows as he pleases will not either actually joyn with him or
Soul with peace of Conscience here the World with happiness and all those who follow it with Eternal Joy unspeakable and full of Glory in Heaven CHAP. XII THUS far I have indeavoured to follow Truth by manifesting that Vnity in Faith and Vnity in Government in a National Church are absolutely necessary both to the salvation of Mens Souls and to the Happiness Peace and Security of any People in their Politique Capacities As there can be nothing in the World more desirable so there is nothing that all good Men ought more sincerely to indeavour to promote Blessed are the Peace-makers says the Eternal Prince of Peace for they shall be called the Children of God who is the God of Peace and the Author of the Gospel of Peace Let us therefore in Order to it in the next place see what Expedients have been propounded to restore this Peace to this Church and Nation IT has been already manifested that Vnity in point of Faith is the Bond of the Catholique Vnion among all distinct Churches which are Members of the Catholique or Universal Church but this Faith must Work by Love Gal. 5.6 It has been also shewn that though this Vnity of Faith which works so by Love as that though distinct Nations and Churches disagree about Ceremonies and Circumstances of Religion yet they may all agree in the substance of Faith yet that it is impossible this should be in the same Nation and that therefore Vniformity of Government in the Church is absolutely necessary to maintain Charity and Vnity And though this might be sufficient to shew the Unreasonableness of Tolleration of different Forms of Divine Worship under the same Magistrate yet since there is such a Cry among all Dissenters both Papists and others for Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience as an Expedient both Politique Religious and Necessary let me be permitted freely to speak my impartial sense concerning it THOUGH all Parties whose private Opinion makes them Dissent from the Establisht Government both in Church and State must of necessity be desirous of a Tolleration yet I find the Papists and the Presbyterians are they who appear most solicitous for it and yet of all others they seem least to deserve it For no man ought in reason to demand that for himself which he would not think it lawful to grant to any other if in his Circumstances Now Experience has given us Demonstration of the violent Tempers of both these and there is not a Possibility of doubting but if either the Papist or Presbyter were in Power they would not allow any Tolleration or Indulgence to other Dissenters but the one would Establish the Scepter of the Pope and the other of Christ as they call their New Government with the most unlimited Soveraignty both over the Faith and Actions of All Princes as well as Peasants and since they would compel all People by the utmost Severities and Rigours of Penal Laws to Carry the Yoak which they would Impose upon them what reason can they have to Expect for themselves what they would deny all others for their Practice has made it evident to the lowest Understanding that they who have so little Charity for their Brethren in the Common Christianity as to damn them without remedy to the bottomless Abyss of Hell for dissenting from them in any one point which they have decreed to be De Fide will look upon it as an Effect of Compassion rather than Cruelty to convert them and save their Souls though with the loss of their Lives Liberties and Estates or if that cannot be effected to confound them to Extirpate and destroy them lest they should lead others by their Doctrines or Example to Damnation WHEREAS in truth and reality nothing but Blasphemy Atheism and such Immoralities as are destructive of Humane Society render men obnoxious to Temporal Punishments Insidelity or not believing aright being Crimes or Defects rather of the Understanding fall no further under humane Cognizance or Penal Laws than by their Consequences and Effects they may or do prejudice those Laws and the Common End of Society and therefore they are reserved for the Punishment of a future state and the Church can proceed no further than to Exclude them from her Communion but not out of the Possession of their Lives or Estates which God Almighty as the Common Father of Mankind thinks fit to permit them to Enjoy making his Sun to shine upon the Just and Unjust with an equal influence and benignity BUT since a Papist has undertaken the Common Cause of all Dissenters The Advocate of Conscience Liberty c. and it may be has said as much for them as the subject will bear and more in behalf of his own Party than any other Dissenters can pretend to for themselves Papists having the specious plea of Prescription as the Religion of our Ancestors the ancient Form of Government in the Church and the Ancient Faith had they permitted it to continue so Intire and Undefiled unmixed with their Apochrypha and Tradiditions I will indeavour to answer what is most material in his Discourse in order to discovering the Weakness of his Plea not concerning my self with the sincerity of his Intention which though appearing for all is only Designed for the benefit of his own Party IN the first place therefore I desire that Notice may be taken how he states the Question in the Prooemium of his Book Note saith he by Persecution Imposition and Restraint we only mean the strict requiring to believe this to be true and that to be false c. and upon refusal to Swear or Conform to incur the Penalties Enacted in such Cases but by these Terms we do not mean any Coercive Let or Hindrance into publique Meetings By Liberty of Conscience we understand only a meer Liberty of Mind in believing or disbelieving this or that Doctrine so far as may refer only to religious matters in a private way of Worship which are not destructive to the Nature and Grounds of Christian Faith nor tending to matters of an External Judicature in abetting any Contrivances or disturbance to common Peace or Civility As to the First of these I would gladly be shewn when or where the Government did ever in this sense persecute in any thing which is purely the subject of Faith without relating to Practice or the Consequences of such Faith or where any person for refusing to Believe or Swear or Conform to any thing which did not insluence the Civil Affairs of State was ever punished was ever any man fined imprisoned or banished because he would not swear to believe any Theological Point as of Free Will Merit of Works c. which had no relation to Political Affairs there cannot be one Precedent found in all the Records of all our Courts of Judicature though we can shew many out of that Legend as he calls Bishop Fox's Martyrology who were put to death without any other Crime than that they
of such Conversions as were Confusions and Consumptions of those Populous Nations To Divine Miracles we oppose all those false Fictions absurd and ridiculous Fables and Legends of their Saints the detection of which has not only now discredited their Religion but given occasion to men of Atheistical Principles to think it is all but as a Pope said Fabula Christi and to call in question the true Miracles of our Saviour and that Faith which was confirmed by them Such as are the Stories of Tursellin in his Lady of Lauretto Benedict's Miracles of the Blessed Virgin and the greatest Miracle of them all Lipsius a man so learned so rational to dote in his old Age in his Romance of the Virgo Hallensis Vives Bristow Canus Canus lac l. 11. cap. 6. complain too truly of them That hereby no man is able to put a difference between the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles and those of these Mens forging And since the one have been often proved False why may not the other be suspected too especially being at so great a distance and pull but down this Foundation and all Religion becomes a meer Gullery and Imposture To his Universality I would gladly know if Historically and Literally Jerusalem was not the Mother of us all Luke 24.42 and that according to the Scriptures Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached unto all Nations beginning at Jerusalem as happened out Acts the second to all the known Nations of the World assembled either for Curiosity or Religion at the Passover And why may not Antioch where the Disciples were first called Christians pretend to Antiquity and Universality as well as Rome since Christianity it self there first received its Baptism and she may well be termed the Godmother of Rome her self who had then neither received the Name nor Faith of Christ Are not the Grecian Armenian Ethiopian Christians as well as the Roman Members of the Catholique Church and yet they own not the Pope either as to Primacy or Supremacy and thousands of them know not whether there be such a man in the World It is hard to damn them all with a breath and as hard for Rome to challenge this Universality where she is scarcely known and I am sure not owned THE same may be said to his Antiquity and even Errot can scarcely be called the younger Brother of Truth and is so much a Twin with it as from its very Birth to have had its hand upon the others heel in order to supplant it Is it therefore true because it is Ancient Was not Simon Magus the Founder of the Gnosticks as ancient as St. Peter and the other Apostles were not Phygellus and Hermogenes Hymeneus and Phyletus and Alexander 2 Tim. 1.15 2 Tim. 2.17 those Christian Saducees who denìed the Resurrection and overthrew the Faith of some as ancient as St. Paul Was not Diotrephes in probability the Parent of the Aerian Heresy who to Exalt himself prated with such malicious words endeavouring to degrade an Apostle contemporary with St. John Joh. 3.9 10. if Antiquity will make men Catholique these have a fairer Plea than Rome who in probability received their Errors before she did her Faith FOR Succession we refer him to Baronius in his Annals if he likes not Genebrard Baron Ann. 985. N. 1. or Sigonius who will inform him of a Catalogue of Popes and their several Characters Simonists Boniface 8. Boyes Benedict 13. John 13. Sergius the 3. and a many more about 50. who as he says Deserved not to be put into the Catalogue of Popes but as he affirms of Boniface who murdered Benedict the 6. and John the 15. were fitter company for Sylla and Cataline And these being all Monuments and all the substance of their Religion it will not be worth our while to Examine all the Accidents of Christianity as the Advocate phrases it I come therefore to his particular Vindication of them from the Calumnies which he says are objected against them and first to their refusing the Oath of Supremacy For if any Oath be lawful among Christians it is a vain Cavil which he makes against this for my own particular I could heartily wish that all Oaths could be made more perspicuous and less frequent but there being an absolute impossibility of the one and necessity of the other we must submit to Humane Frailty For no Oath can be so fromed or worded but it will be liable to the same Exceptions by reason of the ambiguity of all words and the variety of mens apprehensions and understandings And by this Rule no man shall be obliged to take any Oath But when any person takes such Oaths he swears to the declared intention of the Government which requires him to swear for their Security and those under their Care And this is designed only as a mark of Distinction between the Peaceable Friends and the Enemies whose contrivances and intentions are hereby either obviated or discovered and it being easy to be understood and what all men know by the light of Nature Reason and Scripture they who will not Swear to be Obedient to the Government in Veritate Judicio Justitia let the manner of Expressing this be what it will cannot be reputed other than Enemies Nor is the Controversie of Supremacy contained in the word Heretical a speculative point as he would perswade us but a Practical not whether the Pope has any Authority to Excommunicate but whether he has any Authority here to Exercise a Jurisdiction to the prejudice of the Established Government and since he seems to confess that he has not why should any Christian deny to give the Government all the Assurances that can be desired and if such an Authority in the Pope be not grounded upon the Scripture or the Practice of the Catholique Church and no older than the Nos Sanctorum of Pope Hildebrand and therefore Impious and Heretical as being an Usurpation upon the Temporalities of all Princes may not any person except he designs against the Government lawfully swear that he disowns both the Principle and the Practice And since the Clause of the Oath of Supremacy is explicated to intend only Civil and Kingly Government and Authority in Cases Ecclesiastical pag. 184. May not any man swear in Truth Judgment and Equity if it be true it ought to be the Judgment of every good Christian and it is a great measure of Justice and Equity that he should declare himself and call God to witness since as before was said men swear to the true intention and meaning of the Imposers of the Oath and not to any other sence which the words will bear But the plain truth why they refuse is because they do believe the contrary and it is but reasonable since they do that by this Mark of Distinction the Government should know who are Friends to it and who Enemies who by this Principle would Subvert and Overthrow it And if a Man
that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope So were the Scriptures of the New Testament given us a new Rule and a Royal Law of Liberty that we might not Glory in Men 1 Gor. 3.21 22. c. 4.1.6 neither in Paul nor Cephas But that we might esteem them Stewards of the Mysteries of God And not to think of them above what is Written Which place if throughly considered teaches us not to prefer any Man or Men above the Scripture THIS will appear further if we consider the Nature of a Rule for a Rule is the constant certain infallible unchangeable measure according to which I judg of any thing whether it be true or false And if I can but suppose what is offer'd me for a Rule to be false or if I know it is or may be false it can be no Rule because it leaves me in an Uncertainty whether I am Right or Wrong But the Scripture cannot be supposed to be false for admitting that supposition they are no longer Scriptures or the Word of God for every word of God is true Men have been are and will be Fallible Traditions are dubious and uncertain but the Word of God is tried to the uttermost and coming from the Infallible Author of all Truth is the Touchstone of the Truth of Men and their Doctrines and by that we examine by that we judg of mens Faith and actions Isa 8.20 If they speak not according to the Law and the Testimony it is because there is neither Light nor Truth in them THE Mistake seems to be in Confounding the Difference between a Rule and a Guide and they who would advance the Authority of the Church above the Scripture set the Judg above the Law and Confound him with it The Church is indeed the Guide which instructs us but if her Instructions are not according to her Rule of Scripture when we hope for Bread she gives us a Stone and instead of a Fish a Scorpion Mortal Poyson for wholesome Nourishment To Illustrate this Suppose I desire to learn the Mathematicks I therefore apply my self to a Person skilful in that Incomparable Science and intreat him to direct me He shews me Euclid's Elements as the Foundation of Mathematical Knowledg and therefore reads and explains it to me Pray now who is the Rule the Master or the Book Certainly all men who have not forfeited their Reason will say the Book is the Rule the Man the Guide and if he give me any thing for a Demonstration contrary to the Principles therein contained I know by them that he is mistaken because he he has not instructed me according to the Rule The case is the same only the Infallibility of the Scriptures is more certain being founded upon the Infallibility of God They are the Rule the Governors of the Church the Guides appointed by God for that purpose to them therefore men resort for Instruction but if they teach either what is their own or other mens contrary to the Rule they are false Guides and why so But because they give a false Rule betraying that high Trust by God reposed in them to be Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame to conduct them to Eternal Bliss by the Directions of that Rule of which St. Paul says Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God AND even they who contend so earnestly against the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life ought to shew some other End and Design of the Scriptures and a better Rule and not Confute themselves and all their Assertions and Arguments by making this the Rule of Believing whilst they bring Arguments out of it against it self which they would have therefore believed because they are Scripture plainly confessing it to be the Ultimate Rule and that nothing can properly be matter of Faith but what is agreeable to it Which has made the Romish Doctors sweat and toyl so vehemently to Extort Confessions from the Scripture Tert. de Praescript adv Heretic as Tertullian says Caedem Scripturarum faciunt ad materiam suam even Murdering it almost to make it speak to their purpose And since they could not prevail with it to Depose against the Truth they have put it into the Inquisition Imprisoning it in the Vulgar Latin lest if it should get abroad and speak Truth as it would do in despight of all Opposition it would proclaim their Injustice and Violence to the meanest Capacities of the Vulgar among them who would hereby come to detect the Pious Frauds and profitable Follies which are imposed upon them as matter of Faith THE ancient Church believed the Scriptures the Rule of Faith and therefore took care to have them Translated into Syrian Chrys Hom. 1. in Joh. Aegyptian Ethiopian Persian and other innumerable Languages as St. Chrysostom testifies and Theodoret says Theod. de Cur. Graec. affect lib. 5. the Bible was Translated into all Languages used in the World Greek Latin Persian Indian Armenian Scythian Sarmatian And this seems one if not the principal Reason why the Holy Ghost did Miraculously descend in Cloven Tongues upon the Apostles inabling them to speak in several Languages for the Parthians Medes Elamites Dwellers in Mesopotamia Judea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia in Lybia and Cyrene Crete and Arabia heard them speak the wonderful Works of God If they might have used the Compendious way of Instructing them to believe as the Church believes and had made themselves The rule of Faith and like the Priests of Memphis delivered their Hieroglyphical Faith from one to another there would have been no need of all this or of their Pains who afterwards were so diligent to Translate the Scriptures into all Languages to instruct all Nations and to let them see there was no Cheat or Juggle in Religion by exposing it to the view of the severest Criticks CHAP. XV. I Suppose there are no Dissenters among us except those of the Roman Communion but will willingly accord the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Manners And though there may be differences between us and them in some Material points of Doctrine yet the Apple of Strife is about the Government of the Church Some contending for a Parity and Equality as the Presbyterians others for an Absolute Independency of any the least Congregation of Men calling themselves a Church Others for a Democratick Anarchy as the Anabaptists and Quakers and several other Enthusiasts But all point blank against Episcopacy though hitherto they have not been able to satisfie the World for what Offence As for the Independency of Churches I shall only say in short that it opens the way to endless Separations and innumerable Errors and Hesies no man having power to Judg of them besides themselves And slies so far from the Popery of Hierarchy that it runs into a worse Extream and makes every Pastor Supreme
Bishop Patriarch and Pope of his Congregation BUT these People having no Pretensions to a National Government appear not so Dangerous to the State as to themselves nor so troublesome as those who contend for Soveraignty and endeavour to pull down the Pillars of the Church to Establish their own Synagogue and Spiritual Sannedrim of Lay-Ecclesiasticks and whereas the other will be contented with a Chappel of Ease these make the World Uneasie because they may not have the Cathedral and Mother Church And this People the most Industrious of all Mankind the most Vigilant and Indefatigable who compass Sea and Land to make Prosylites and a Party as they are the most Numerous and most powerful so are they most Dangerous both in their Positions and in their Actions and whilest they Clothe Episcopacy with the Title of Idolatry and Superstition as the Heathens did Christians with the skins of Wild Beasts to make the Lyons and Tygers fall upon them so do they Then animate the Populace to Worry them by Tumults Clamours and Outcries against them And under pretence of Destroying Idolatry take Commission from the Law of Moses to break the Commands of the Gospel For a late Instance of which I refer the Reader to the Printed Narrative of Mitchel and his Field Conventiclers the Whigs of Scotland and to their former Practices in England both against particular Persons and the Publique State which fell a Sacrifice to this great Idol of Idolatry and fear of Popery I will therefore endeavour to give a true Account of the Office and Institution of Episcopal Authority in the Church being not without Hopes but that Men of Calm and sober spirits will submit to Truth how contrary soever it may appear to those Prejudices which for want of better Information they have been so long accustomed to THAT there ought to be Government in the Church I presume no Judicious Person will make the least scruple of in regard God Almighty took such particular Care of his Church in the Jewish Nation And we cannot think that under the Gospel which is a better Covenant he would leave it to Anarchy and Confusion The Controversie is What manner and Form of Government Now that it was Episcopal is the thing which we maintain and I hope to prove and not only that but that it is of Divine Institution And first for the Name of Bishop which in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Overseer Christ himself was the first Bishop and is so styled by St. Peter The Bishop of our Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 St. Paul makes frequent mention of the Name in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and calls it the Office of a Bishop and affirms that if any man desire it he desires a good Work This is a true saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a faithful saying And what is by the Mouth of Divine Verity pronounced not only an Office and that implies Power but a desirable Office and good Work cannot without Sacrilegious Blasphemy be styled Antichristian and it is no modest Impiety to Combine against God and solemny Covenant and Vow the Extirpation of it Root and Branch Rom. 2.22 Thou that aborrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledg Our Blessed Lord tells us Every Plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up one would Judg by that Rule that Episcopacy in the Government of the Church were a plant of Gods own planting since for 1600 years and upwards all the Power Malice of Men and Devils have not been able to pluck it up But he has graciously been pleased to Protect it Psal 104.16 so that it has been Like the Cedars of Lebanus which the Lord hath planted And he has made good his promise to be with them to the End of the World And Those that be planted in the House of the Lord Psal 92.13 14 15. shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall bring forth more fruit in their Old age they shall be Fat and flourishing to shew that the Lord is upright just to his Promise he is their Rock and there is no unrighteousness in him And what for all this Root and Branch O vain Men If ye have run with footment Jer. 12.5 and they have wearied you how can ye contend with Horses If you have fought with Men and have not been able to prevail how will you be able to fight with God Remember Gamaliel's counsel For if this work be of God Act. 5.39 you cannot overthrow it your selves you may and will be found to fight against God And you will find that Impar Congressus a very unequal Combat The Giants who thought to Conquer Heaven Purchast Hell Heaven is not to be had by such violence as opposes it but Hell and Damnation certainly will I hope the greatest part of those who do so violently persecute this Name and Office are like St. Paul and may with him find Mercy though they be Blasphemers and Persecutors provided like him they did it ignorantly and cease to kick against the Thorns And this they cannot do unless they acknowledge both the Name and Office of a Bishop to be of Divine Institution Take heed saith St. Paul Acts 20.28 therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers the Translating of which Word hath occasion'd a world of Mischief and Mistakes and was certainly a great oversight having made so many oversee the Bishop in it for it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over which the Holy Ghost hath appointed or placed you Bishops So that however the Name of Bishop is not to be rooted out nor is it Popish or Antichristian as the Credulous Vulgar are made believe I know what will be the answer The same Saint Paul in the same Chapter Vers 17. calls them Presbyters And this they think above all the places in Scripture concludes against Episcopacy and proves not only the Parity but Aerian Identity of Bishops and Presbyters But stay my Masters let not Passionate Opinion outrun Truth and Reason St. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God having Preached the Gospel in all the Cities of the lesser Asia being upon his Journey to Jerusalem he comes to Miletus and from thence sends to Ephesus and calls for the Presbyters of the Church upon their coming he acquaints them with the sorrowful Message that he was to leave them for ever and take his last farewell of them And now behold I know that ye all says he among whom I have gone Preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more Whilst he was conversant among them he was their Spiritual Guide and Ruler but now that he was to leave them and could not discharge that part of the Apostolical Function of Government which he calls elsewhere 2 Cor. 11.28 The Care of all the Churches which came upon him
have instructed his Scholar to put down and not Exalt this Antichrist in the Church of God 1 Jo. 2.18 This Ignatius who was afterwards in the Eleventh year of Trajan Crowned with Martyrdom at Rome being torn in pieces by Wild Beasts as Eusebius gives us an account Euseb Eccl. His l. 3. c. 19. 35. he speaks as plain of the Difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter as Pen can write or Heart can wish In his Epistle to the Magnesians Ig. Ep. ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop saith he is seated in the first place as in the place of God and the Presbyters as the Senate of the Apostles And in another place of the same Epistle They says he who Act without a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such Christ will say Why do ye call me Lord Lord and do not the works which I Command you Such Persons seem to me not to be of a good Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to be Hypocrites and Dissemblers And in his Epistle to the Trallians he Commands them in the Language of the Author to the Hebrews Ignat. Epist ad Trall To be subject unto this Bishop as unto the Lord for he Watches for your souls And in another place he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is absolutely necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you should do nothing without the Bishop Thus we see the Sons of the Church in the first Century of the Apostles of Christ being yet living thought of Bishops as we do And therefore it is both Undeniable and Undubitable that Episcopal Government was of Divine Institution and that a Bishop and a Presbyter are two different things in the Primitive Church both as to Power and as to Name I might bring a whole Cloud of Witnesses of less Antiquity but if these will not convince if the Testimony of Scripture and so Primitive a man and a Bishop as Ignatius be of no value I can have little hopes of convincing Gainsayers by multitude who have abandoned Reason THUS stood the Affairs of the Church for above 300 Years no man making the least Question or Dispute but that the Government by Episcopacy was of Gods appointment one Bishop still succeeding another as in the Ecclesiastical Historians my be seen in most of the Principal Cities of the World Epiphan l. 3. Tom. 1. Haeres 25. till Aerius being Educated with Eustathius and being his equal in Learning and Age took it as a great disparagement that Eustathius was preferred before him to a Bishoprick for which they were Competitors upon this discontent he not only fell foul upon Eustathius objecting as our Aerians do against him Pride and Covetousness but his Resentments for the Mortal displeasure broak out against the whole Function contemning the prescribed Fasts of the Church and teaching by the same Arguments with ours that a Bishop and a Priest were all one by the Scriptures of equal Power Authority and Jurisdiction which saith Epiphanius is an Assertion stultitiae plena full of Folly But this being but one discontented Priests Opinion was neither much regarded nor long lived the current belief of the Scripture and the constant Usage of the Church which knew no other Government run so strong that he was drowned in it nor did the Heresie ever float again till this last Age of which St. Clement who was contemporary to St. Paul and his fellow Labourer Phil. 4.3 as he calls him seems to prophecy in that Epistle of his to the Corinthians which I think was never suspected to be spurious where he tells us there would come a time when there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Ep. ad Cor. a contention about the very name of a Bishop BY virtue of this Power it was that the Rulers of the Church ordered and appointed all things which were done which were of an indifferent Nature in Government as about the Observation of Holy Fasts and Festivals the manner of Celebrating the Service and Worship of God the Prayers and Alms of the Church the Postures Gestures and Habits which were to be made use of and all other Rites and Ceremonies following herein the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Manners and the General Precepts therein contained as Rules of Government which were principally these FIRST That nothing imposed should be repugnant or contrary to any Article or Branch of Faith or a Holy Life or to any Customs of the Church recorded in Holy Writ SECONDLY That all their Commands might have a respect to Decency Order Reverence and Edification THIRDLY That All might have a tendency to Vnity Peace and Concord and that diversity of Customs and Opinions might not breed Schisms and Contentions and I shewed before how when in some of these things there was a difference in several Churches yet still they held Communion one with another maintaining inviolably the same Faith and Government in all THIS was the Condition of the Church both as to Faith and Polity till such time as the great Powers of the Earth the Roman Emperours and other Kings became Christians and took up the Cross of Christ as the Glory of their Crowns The first of which was Constantine the Great These Temporal Powers then took the Church into their Protection made Temporal Laws for the better Management of it and to preserve it from the Injuries of Heathen Idolaters without and Hereticks within and having the Sword in their hand undertook as it was their Duty to punish Evil doers who darst transgress the Laws of the Church with Temporal Punishments as well as those who broak the Laws of the Civil Magistrate and to incourage the Peaceable and Religious From the Bounty of these Princes and that of others of plentiful Fortunes and and by their Example the Church came to be Endowed with Temporalties and an Honourable Constant and Encouraging Maintainance was provided and settled upon those who were to serve at the Altar that so they might be inabled and furnished with all sorts of Learning well knowing that proportionate Rewards are the spurs to Learning and Virtue as the Wisdom of God for our Encouragement to Pursue and Obtain her tells us Prov. 8.18.3.4 Riches and Honour are with me yea durable Riches and Righteousness and that length of days are in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour And that according to the Apostolical Command 1 Cor 9.11 14. They which sow Spiritual things should also reap Carnal for so hath the Lord commanded that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel BY this it appears That now there was a double Obligation laid upon all Christians to be Obedient to the Commands of the Church both because they derive their Power from God and because the Temporal Power did now concur to strengthen the Duty by the Obligations of Humane Laws nor can any thing or any pretence of Conscience authorize
evident the best Method to obtain Assent to them As the disagreement of the Church is to suspend our Belief But this can only be about such things as are collaterally of Faith and by coming under the Notion of things Dubious are matter of Opinion and which if a man never knows he may be saved and therefore if he does not believe he cannot be Damned the Church is the Interpreter but not the Judg and indeed every man is a Judg for himself by his Eyes his Ears his Reason and Understanding whether that which the Church Interprets be according to the Scripture the Rule of that Faith by which he is to be saved and which therefore it is necessary that he know before he believe it to Salvation BUT since doubts are of divers Natures Private and Publique let us see how any Person may be determined in both First therefore Where the doubt is only Private about things not determined by Publique Authority derived from Scripture which are of an Indifferent Nature Every Mans full perswasion is his Judg according to the best Evidence the things in doubt admit of from the light of Nature Reason or probability that they are good and Lawful or Evil and Unlawful This full Perswasion St. Paul calls Faith Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin that is what I am not fully perswaded in my own mind of the Lawfulness of I cannot lawfully do This was the Case of the Gentiles who having only the Law of Nature were a Law to themselves their thoughts either Accusing or Excusing them as they acted according to the best of their knowledg and full Perswasion But this Judgment is only Private and has nothing to do with any other Person Hast thou Faith have it to thy self who art thou that Judgest anothe Happy is he that Condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth This is the Error of our Times men will make their Private perswasions Judges of all other men and impose their Private Opinions as matters of Faith necessary to Salvation Against which the whole Scope of that whole 14th Chapter to the Romans is designed BUT there is also another Private Judg whom God has appointed with Reference to things both of Private and Publique Concern and that is Conscience the Rule of Conscience is the Scripture the measure of Conscience is the certainty of Knowledg and the Judgment of Conscience is the determination of the Mind and the Direction of our Practice according to it For thus I and every man Judges I therefore believe the Articles of the Christian Faith that I am to do good to All men to be Obedient to God and my Lawful Superiors to live Righteously soberly and Godly in this present World because I certainly know that these things are by God commanded in Scripture and whatever is not so in plain Words or Consequence is only matter of Opinion and not of Conscience Certainty of Knowledg being of the Essence of Conscience as Probability is of the Essence of Opinion BUT Secondly In regard this very Rule is in things of Publique Doubt and Concern in some things Dubious such as is the Controversie about Government And since the Holy Oracles may seem to admit of Diverse interpretations so that what satisfies one mans Judgment is quite Opposite and contrary to another We must inquire who are to be Judges and Interpreters of the Rule in these Publique Affairs For that there must be some Judg or Judges is plain because God commands Vnity and Obedience but these cannot be obtained without men be determined What and Whom to Obey St. Peter informs us 2 Pet. 1.20 2 Pet. 3.16 That it is not the Duty of Private men For no Scripture is of private Interpretation and shews us the danger Notwithstanding which bold men will venture at it as St. Hierom says of his days Hier. Ep. ad Paulinum Scripturarum Ars est quam passim omnes sibi vendicant hanc Garrula anus hanc delirus Senex hanc Sophista verbosus hanc universi presumunt lacerant docent antequam discant It seems in his time all people read the Scriptures For every prating Old Woman and Doating Old Man every Wrangling wordy Sophister challenges and presumes to tear the Scriptures in pieces and to teach others before they have learnt themselves Whereas these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Peter calls them Unlearned ungrounded People ought first to Learn But of whom There is but this Choice either this Power is in the People or in the Governors of the Church IT cannot be in the People for they are Private Persons and are incapacitated by being so to perform this Publique Office for what no one can do singly neither can all do Collectively what every man wants all must For if every man in the World had but one Eye all the World must want two And the People are to Obey in Learning and therefore not to Rule in Teaching Neither would it be possible to come to any Determination in any thing it being impossible to find all the People of one Nation City Village or Family Nay even one Person of the same mind for any continuance of Time and by consequence all Religion must stagger and totter with continual Changes Uncertainties and Alterations and at last fall to Ruine and Confusion Which Great Truth forced even Calvin himself to drop this Oracle so contrary to the Pretences of his now Followers who would have the Fences of Government which incloses Gods Vineyard thrown down and all laid Common by Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience Cal. Inst lib. 4. p. 10. Sect. 31. Quantarum Rixarum saith he semen futura sit Earum Rerum Confusio si prout cuique libitum sit mutare liceat quae ad communem Statum pertinent Quando nunquam futurum est ut omnibus idem placeat si res velut in medio Positae singulorum arbitrio relictoe fuerint Si penes singulos jus Arbitrium erit Judicandi nihil unquam certi constitui Poterit Quin potius tota vacillabit Religio Of how many and great Quarrels would such Confusion be the Nursery If it shall be Lawful for every man according to his Pleasure to change those things which belong to the Common State of Christianity Since it can never be possible that the same thing should please all so long as indifferent things are left to be determined according to every mans Arbitrary Pleasure And if the Power and Right the Liberty of Judging Arbitrarily be left to the pleasure of All nothing of certainty can ever be Established but rather all Religion will totter and tumble down THE Scripture must be Interpreted and is not of Private Interpretation what remains but that it is of Publique God commands Vnity but in doing so he would command an Impossibility if he had not appointed Means to obtain it to whom then can this Power be delegated to draw all mens private Opinions into one Common Rule
Divine Truths of Worshipping God which you pretend to have discovered If you are certain shew it us that we may be so too Truths of this Nature must be clear and shining Error is dark and obscure If you are not certain as it is impossible you should you are certainly Proud and Presumptuous to Despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities which God has appointed in both Church and State And if it be certain that you are in Error and fight against God while you disturb the Peace of the World destroy Charity Peace and Concord by Hatred Strifes Seditions do you think that you shall ever see God to receive the Blessing of the Peace-Makers who shall be called the Children of God If Bishops be the true Shepherds as is Evident from Scripture Antiquity Oecumenical Councels and the Testimony of all those Martyrs the spirits of Just Men now made Perfect how will you answer the Chief Shepherd and Great Bishop of Souls at his appearing for climbing over into his Fold for Stealing and Killing and Destroying both the Sheep and the Shepherds How will you answer for all the Blood which has already been shed in the Quarrel to maintain your Vsurpations upon all things Civil and Sacred For all those Injuries Oppressions Spoiles Devastations and that Sacriledge which you have been the occasion of whilest you pretended by the Sword of Rebellion to Erect your Government Do you think that when God makes Inquisition for Blood Psal 9. that he will not remember the Complaint of the Poor the souls of so many Pious Innocents and their blood Cries like Abels but above all the blood of the Royal Martyr with those that St. John saw under the Altar crye aloud and of those who served at his Altar here Quousque Domine How long Lord Holy and true dost thou not Avenge our blood IN short either you must shew that the Government in Church and State are Unlawful and that your whole Charge against them is as true as it is Black or you are Calumniators You must prove yours a true Church or you are False Accusers of that which is you must shew that the Impositions are Unlawful or your Disobedience must be so and you will appear to be the Devils Factors and not Gods Ministers whilest you preach Religion to Destroy it and your Disobedience to indifferent things will be Damnable sin You will be accountable not only for your own Guilt but for that of all those who deceived by your Example and Doctrine Glory in what is the shame of Christianity thinking Reformation consists in Ruine and true Religion in open Rebellion and that to be a Friend of God it is requisite a man should be an Enemy to his Church IN the Name of God therefore consider seriously of these things If this be true Receive it and Repent if it be False shew it Where and in What for I profess my self as willing to embrace Truth from you as desire you should receive it from me Let not the vain shame of Revoking your Opinions the fear of losing the Esteem Flatteries and Benevolences of your Followers Mislead you Truth is an Excellent Companion though never so Naked It is better to Blush here than Burn Eternally Let not the hopes of the Churches Revenue animate you to Kill the Heir that the Inheritance may be yours Church Lands have not been Lucky to their Possessors Laqueus erit illi qui devorat Sacra says Solomon It is a Snare to devour Holy things They are Gods Portion you will bring a Snare upon your Souls and it may be upon your Necks which may spoyl the pleasure of those sweet Morsels And be assured that God will not forsake his Church for ever there are Praying Legions in that Glorious Army both in Heaven and Earth and more are they that are with us than they that are against us our Mountain may be full of Chariots and Horses of Fire though you see them not God will not suffer his Darling always to dwell among Lions or to lye under the Saws and Harrows of Iron She shall come up out of the Wilderness leaning upon her Beloved She shall look forth as the Morning fair as the Moon clear as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners Tanquam acies Ordinata with flying Colours in good Discipline and Comely Order take Heed lest whilest you think your selves upon Jacobs Ladder climbing up to Heaven that by sighting against this Army you do not prove your selves the Gates of Hell which shall not prevail against it but will against you If God arise for the Meek of the Earth his Enemies will be scattered and they that hate him shall flee before him but not be able to out fly his Vengeance Arise O Lord God thou and thy Ark into thy Resting-place let thy Priests be cloathed with Salvation and let thy Saints rejoyce in thy goodness And let all them that wish and pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Prosper and let all the People say Amen FINIS THe Author's Absence from the Press hath occasion'd the following Errata's which I hope the Candid Reader will Correct with what other Faults he finds Errata PAge 4. line 6. r. Impostor p 21. l. 7. for at one r. atone p. 27. l. 23. r. Cardinalis p. 31. l. 24. dele learn to do well p. 52. l. 9. r. Stratagem p. 65. l. 7 for there r. these p. 94. l. ult r. Menaces p. 128. l. 2. for Honor r. favour p. 133. l. 26. r. Imprudent p. 152. l. 22. for External r. Eternal p. 174 l. 31. for if â— that p. 226. l. 18. r. has not p. 287. l. 12. r. of Age. A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street THe Commentaries of C. Julius Caesar of his Wars in Gallia and the Civil Wars betwixt him and Pompey Translated into English with many excellent and judicious Observations thereupon as also the Art of our Modern Training or Tactick Practice by Clement Edmonds Esquire Remembrancer of the City of London Whereunto is adjoyned the Eighth Commentary of the Wars in Gallia with some short Observations upon it Together with the Life of Caesar and an account of his Medals Revised Corrected and Enlarged in Fol. The History of the Reigns of Henry the VII Henry the VIII Edward the VI. and Queen Mary the First Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam Viscount St. Alban the other Three by the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God Francis Godwyn Lord Bishop of Hereford in Fol. The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney Knight the Thirteenth Edition with his Life and Death a brief Table of the principal Heads and some other new Additions in Fol. The French way of Excercising their Infantry as it is now used in the Armies of his Most Christian Majesty in Fol. sticht Parthenissa that most Fam'd Romance the Six Volumes compleat composed by the Right
as the Opinions of private Doctors he might have said with Charity Doctrines of Devils those Incendiaries of the World and perpetual Haters of Humane Nature and Happiness but by his favour what he condemns Mariana and Suarez for teaching a Pope was so far from being of his Opinion of condemning that he commends it in the Publique Consistory Pius Quintus was his Name who when Henry the Third of France was murthered by Jaques Clement the Monk gave his Applause to the Tragedy it was Rarum insigne memorabile facinus facinus non sine Dei Opt. Max. particulari Providentia dispositione verus Monachus Fictum occiderat A rare famous and memorable Exploit and not without the particular Providence of Almighty God that the true Monk should murder the false one Well might the Painter make St. Peter's Picture blush for the Crimes of such impious Successors as this I need not repeat the Tumults of Rome nor the Wars of Italy under Pope Boniface the Eighth nor the Reign of Julius John the 12. or 22. nor all the Disturbances occasioned by the Pride and Ambition of Popes grasping at Temporal Power and Soveraignty Here is the Root of the Matter This Canon which has stood unrepealed this 600 Years is the perpetual Foundation of Papal Usurpations to which whoever does not Swear upon Occasion must be a Heretick and whoever does must if the Pope pleases be a Rebel to his Prince and against the Lord and his Christ whose Gospel teaches the quite contrary Doctrine And though notwithstanding this the Catholique Princes and even those of Italy as he says pag. 202. who live under the Pope's nose are not affraid of being Deprived or Excommunicated but are Absolute and Arbitrary in their Dominions Those last words are a good reason of their fearlessness for themselves but an ill one for their Subjects and the subsequent words which he adds a worse for both though absolutely necessary to maintain their right for they are not obliged to the Principles of the Roman Religion or their Peoples Fidelity built upon the Sacred and Solemn Oaths of Allegiance but are obliged to make the Sword give a Constant Security to the Sceptre Whilest they dispute with Sword in hand for their Temporalities So that it seems the Pope puts them upon disputing their Right and if the Sword of Princes be not longer than St. Peters the Pope has the best Argument for even the Temporalities and the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven can open a door to the Kingdoms of the Earth Is not this a rare Principle of Peace which obliges Princes to stand continually upon their Guard against the Incroachments of the See of Rome AND whereas pag. 215. to ballance the Impious Doctrines of Bellarmine Suarez and Mariana he throws into the other Scale Luther Calvin Knox and Buchanan and tells us That their Opinions are at least as dangerous to Monarchy the difference between them being only this That whereas the former lodg the Deposing Power in the Pope only whose person is at a safe and sufficient distance at least from us the latter bring the danger home to the door of Princes and place it in the People whom they make both Parties and Judges in the Case Neither the one therefore nor the other who maintain such Doctrines fit to be Tollerated by any Prince who has not a mind to be deposed either by the Pope or the People But this distance this safe distance was a prety sweetning Parenthesis to dose a Prince with the Opium of being out of Danger As if Popes might not have as long hands now and their Bulls as long Horns as in the days of Henry the 4 th or Otho or King John And as if the Pope were not in the Case of those Soveraigns both Judg and Party particularly that of Henry where the Quarrel was whether the Pope or the Prince had the Right of Investitures of Bishops to their Temporalities BUT what if I shew him that Calvin Luther c. are as good Catholiques as he in this Point of Vesting this deposing Power in the People Vide Avent Polychron Viterben Sabellicus Nauclerus in vita Childerici and all the Historians of that Age. Pope Zachary being consulted whether Childerick being Sine liberis sine ingenio might be deposed and Pepin who was Major du palais Substituted in his room in his Answer to the Peers of France wanting a President for such Power in himself tells them at first that it was of that weight ut non auderet tam magni momenti cogitationem suscipere that he darst scarce entertain a thought of it but tells them in Conclusion That since Princes hold their Crowns and Government of the Peoples Choice in whom it resides absolutely Constituere Destituere a pretty modest word for Deposing to appoint or forsake therefore they might remove him who was unuseful and Elect him who was most Worthy So said so done See here a Lutheran Pope abandoning Supremacy for which now they contend as prò arîs and vesting this Deposing Power in the People A Position no less Treasonable than contrary to plain Scripture in a hundred places and therefore Damnable to make Princes whose Tenure is in Capite of God Almighty only become Tenants at will by Copy of Court Roll of Popular Election and Deposition If these be good Subjects good Christians who lay an Eternal Foundation for Perpetual Changes and Revolutions in Government and Governors by tossing and tumbling Crowns upon the Tempestuous Ocean of the Mobile vulgus let them be cherished let them be Tollerated LET him now which he ought to have done if he could or had meant fairly Shew in all the Doctrine of the Church of England the least Sylable that may any way be construed even by Prejudice it self to encourage Sedition Rebellion or deposing of Princes He nibbles a little at it pag. 261. with What if one should say you were Antichristian Bloody-minded Seditious c Why if he should he would be guilty of a most notorious Calumny and Falshood because he can never prove it For our Doctrine and our Practice suites with our Prayers which are Litany of Ch. of Engl. From all Sedition Privy Conspiracy and Rebellion Good Lord deliver us And if the pure Spirit of Primitive Christianity so Innocent so Vnambitious so Obedient and full of Sincerity and godly Simplicity so Pure and Peaceable and full of good Works be only to be found in the Doctrine and Practice of those who are the true Sons of the Church of England let them be accounted the best Subjects the best Christians And that therefore they deserve the Encouragement the Care and Protection of the Laws and Government and not to be given up to be Wasted Devoured and Destroyed trampled down and troden underfoot by Tolleration of those whose Principles and Practice are so directly contrary to the Peace and Prosperity of the Church and Nation CHAP. XIII THUS it appears
from the Advocates own Words that none can justly plead for a Tolleration whose Devilish Principles and furious Practices tend to the Subversion of Government which both by what has been said and by Experience the surest Demonstration in the World both Papists and other Dissenters especially Presbyterians have been proved guilty of Let us now see how he manages the Cause of his own Party for whose sake this Project of a Tolleration was principally intended as is plain by his comparing Luther Calvin Buchanan c. with Mariana Suarez and Bellarmine Whose Doctrines are at least as he says as Dangerous to Monarchy and therefore unfit to be Tollerated the one or the other LET us therefore examine the Plea of Innocency which he descends to defend in particular And as their manner always is pag. 70. he tells us That the Roman Catholique Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our Countrey from whom we had our very Christianity Suppose it were yet Quantum mutatus ab illo The present Roman Catholique Religion is not the same which they planted But with his good leave his Assertion is contrary Pol. Virgil. Hist Angl. l. 2. not only to great Probability but to the consent of Historians for Polydore Virgil tells us Test is est Gildas Britannos jam inde ab initio arti Evangelii Christianam accepisse Religionem That our Ancestors received the Christian Faith according to the Testimony of Guildas in the very beginning of the Gospel Baronius thinks St. Peter was here Theodoret Bar. An. 58. n. 51. Theod. de curand Graec. affect l. 9. Niceph l. 2. cap. 40. Baron An. 36. n. 5. Bede lib. 1. cap. 25 26. lib. 2. cap. 2. Saint Paul Nicephorus Simon Zelotes Some Joseph of Arimathea and even when Austin the Monk came from Gregory to Convert us as they say to the Christian Faith he found a Church among us as Beda testifies Bertha a Christian Queen and at Bangor a Monastery or rather a Colledg of many hundreds who upon the Question Whether they should admit of Austin put it upon this Issue Si sit humilis admittatâ—â—â— But finding him proud and Imperious they rejected him which they durst never have done had they believed even the bare Primacy of his Master or that they were owing for their Faith and Conversion to the Roman Church I will not enter into a long dispute about Merits Pardons Purgatory Adoration of Images or Transubstantiation which were but actum agere only methinks the Apothecaries Argument deserves to be put upon the File who being pressed to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation told the Zealous Agressor pleasantly but truly Sir I will make a Wafer and set a mark upon it that it may not be changed you shall send it to the Pope let him Consecrate it and I will venture you a 100 l. you dare not take it Oh says the other but I dare and would well reply'd the Apothecary then I will venture a 1000 l. that you shall be dead before next Morning which if it were really transubstantiated were impossible that the poison of the Body should be the food of the Soul and Christ be made a Murderer which demonstrative Conclusion so little expected puts the Romanist a little out of Conceit with his Doctrine and struck him as dumb as the other would have done dead for all the Transubstantiation there are very gross Stories and Slanders abroad if some in the Romish Church have â—â—â—tried the Experiment and have received their Death by what was given them as the Body of Christ and the Bread of Life BUT I will observe his Method p. 166. He tells us confidently That there makes for them all that may or can be of any Christian man required Literal Text of Holy Scripture approved Tradition General Councels Ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories Christian Laws Conversion of Nations Divine Miracles Heavenly Visions Vnity Vniversality Antiquity Succession all Monuments all Substance all Accidents of Christianity Here is not a word of Proof and therefore I may take the same Liberty in contradicting it if I please But to answer this There makes against them Literal Text of Holy Scripture â—usanus Ep. 2. ad Bohem. of that Scripture which a Cardinal says is a Nose of Wax of that Scripture which the Pope has Power to inlarge at his pleasure as the Trent Councel has done making the Apochrypha Canonical Of that Scripture which speaks not a single word for the Popes Supremacy Transubstantiation Purgatory Masses for the Dead Invocation of Saints Vows of single Life c. but in a thousand places against them and therefore they are obliged to fly for refuge to their Approved Traditions and set them in the Throne above the Scriptures whose mouths must be stopped by the vulgar Latin and the Vulgar confined from reading them and even these approved Traditions are most of them such as the Universal Church never knew never acknowledged Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Dec. 1. which yet must be received with the same Reverence and Affection as the Scriptures for as Baronius affirms Bar. Ann. 53. Num. 11. Traditio Scripturarum Fundamentum and the Traditions of Men are made the Foundation of Scripture and of Faith And the Canon Law of Pope Gregory XIII Dist 40. Si Papa in Ann. Margin goes higher yet and sets the Pope above them all For men rather desire to know the ancient Institution of Christian Religion from the Popes mouth than from the holy Scripture And yet all of their own Church do not approve these Approved Traditions for Basil says Basil Reg. contract p. 502. It is necessary and agreable to Reason that all men learn what is their Duty out of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both for the fulfilling all Godliness and lest they should be accustomed to Humane Traditions Iren. l. 3. c. 2. And Irenaeus tells us it was the Custom of Hereticks to call in Tradition to their assistance against Scripture alledging that those Truths as they called them which they held were not delivered by Writing but by word of Mouth AGAINST his General Counsels we oppose the first four and have offered a thousand times to put the Issue upon their Verdict Against Ecclesiastical Histories Ancient Fathers Christian Laws we oppose the frequent Forgeries of all these detected even by themselves and the Index Expurgatorius which Castrates all the Fathers that they may be fit Eunuchs for the Papal Seraglio the Vatican by being disabled to propagate truth For Conversion of Nations we refer them to the Acts of the Apostles for the first Age and for these last to Acosta the Jesuite and Bartholomeus Casas a Bishop in the Indies Acost de Ind. salut procurand their Conversion was such that the miserable People chose to go to Hell with their Ancestors rather than to Heaven with such Christians and if their Relations are true gives occasion to the Romanists to blush rather than boast